12 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



most eastern bend of the creek. At this place the valley of the 

 creek, which here runs nearly north, is less than a mile wide, 

 surmounted on either side by high bluffs of Tertiary material. 

 The immediate valley is excavated in the Cretaceous chalk. 

 The result is that here, as elsewhere in western Kansas where 

 like geological conditions obtain, the underflow through the 

 Tertiary sandstones, over the impervious chalk floor, comes 

 abundantly into the valley, furnishing a considerable stream 

 of water. Perhaps no stream in the western part of the state 

 offers more favorable conditions for irrigation than does this 

 in its lower part. In the dryest years there is always an 

 abundance of water in the stream, and in the deep pools along 

 its course there are always many fish. About a half mile above 

 the site of the present ruins, the Tertiary underflow comes to 

 the surface along the side of a hill in such perpetual abundance 

 that it is utilized in the irrigation of a considerable tract of 

 land. 



"These two facts — easy facilities for unfailing and exten- 

 sive irrigation, and a fish- and beaver-producing, perpetually 

 flowing stream — are undoubtedly explanatory of the location 

 of the ruins at this place. The ruins are situated near the 

 middle of the valley, close to the stream, and away from any 

 possibility of ambush by hostile savages. They occupy a small 

 knoll of ground, and, as first seen by us, consisted of a low, 

 rounded heap of soil and stone, perhaps 75 or 100 feet in diam- 

 eter, the soil wholly overgrown by buffalo grass. The rocks 

 are the coarse sandstone of the neighboring hills. A small 

 excavation had been made in the middle of this mound by pre- 

 vious explorers, perhaps two feet in depth and of a dozen 

 square feet in area." 



In conclusion. Doctor Williston says: "One fact is estab- 

 lished from the explorations — the ruins are of Pueblo origin. 

 Of this there can be no question. The plan of the structure is 

 only such as the Pueblo Indians could have devised and carried 

 out. It is not the work of white men, either Spanish or 

 French, though it is very probable that both the Spanish and 

 French may have occupied this and other structures at this 

 locality at later times, or even contemporaneously with the 

 Pueblos. The finding of an iron ax, of rude and primitive 

 workmanship, it is true, indicates white men's skill. It is very 

 evident, also, that the metal instruments were used by the 



