CLIMATE OF NORTH AMERICA HUNTINGTON. 401 



or to places where it is clear that a moderate increase in the amount 

 of rainfall would cause permanent streams or springs to flow. Farther 

 away on the top of the plateau, however, far from the larger rums 

 and remote from any except small valleys, numerous ruins of an- 

 other, more prmiitive type are found. They are usually small, and 

 are greatly ruined, and seem to belong to a time long anterior to the 

 main large ruins. 



One of the best places for the study of this older tjY><i of ruins is in 

 the Pajaritan Plateau, 20 or 30 miles northwest of Santa Fe, the 

 capital of New Mexico. I was taken to this region by ]\'fr. Kenneth 

 M. Chapman, curator and artist of the Ai'cheological Museum of 

 New Mexico. The plateau is a beautiful district covered with 

 forests of juniper and piiion, which at liighcr altitudes give place to 

 stately yellow pines set in open order with stretches of sparse grass 

 between them. In spite of the deep soil, the grass, and the trees, 

 we saw no sign of habitation, for except in a few insignificant spots 

 in the bottoms of the canyons where irrigation is possible, all the 

 great plateau is too dry for any cultivation below a level of about 

 8,000 feet. Soon after reaching the main top of the plateau we came 

 upon the fu'st of the gi-eat number of ruins which are scattered in 

 every part of the plateau. These particular ones were cliff dwellings 

 of the usual type, caves dug in the soft volcanic rock of the side of a 

 shallow canyon, and fronted by rooms made of bloclvs of the same 

 soft tufa. The number of such caves and cliff dwellings is literally 

 thousands in this one Pajaritan Plateau. "With them are associated 

 the ruins of villages like those of the Chaco Canyon. After crossing 

 several minor canyons, we found ourselves at the edge of the deep 

 Canyon de Los Frijoles, or Bean Canyon, where a precipitous cliff 

 fell away 400 feet or more at our feet. Unhitching the horses we 

 left the wagon on the plateau, and turned the animals down a steep 

 winding trail, blasted in part from the face of the solid rock. We 

 had not followed them far when I uttered an involuntary exclama- 

 tion of delight. I knew that we were to visit one of the most interest- 

 ing ruins of New Mexico, but I had no idea of finding it in so pictu- 

 resque a canyon. I had still less expectation of suddenly seeing far 

 below us on a small level space at the base of the })recipice a structure 

 wliich at first sight suggested a Greek amphitheater. It was the 

 village of Tuyoni, excavated by the School of American Ai-cheology 

 at Santa Fo in the four seasons from 1908 to 1911. The plan of the 

 ruins is symmetrical, a cncle slightly flattened on the north side, and 

 containing from five to eight tiers of rooms arranged like the seats 

 of a theater. Across the flattened end where the stage would be 

 expected a line of rooms contains the remnants of three circular 

 chambers or ''kivas," designed for religious purposes, apparently 

 analogous to the larger circular or elliptical structures which are 



