REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 5o 



of <;rouud. The coue rises on the west iu a precipitous clitl" iVoin the 

 valley of an iuterinitteut creek. The pueblo was built ou that side 

 at the summit of the clifl", and extending on the north and south sides 

 along the summit of steep slopes, was inclosed on the east, so that 

 the plaza was entered by a covered way. The court, or plaza, was about 

 one third of an acre iu area. The little pueblo contained perhaps sixty 

 or seventy rooms. Southward of San Francisco Mountain many other 

 ruins were found. 



East of the San Francisco Peak, at a distance of about 12 miles, an- 

 other cinder cone was found. Here the cinders are soft and friable, and 

 the coue is a prettily shaped dome. On the southern slope there are exca- 

 vations into the indurated and coherent cinder mass, constituting cham- 

 bers, often 10 or 12 feet in diameter and G to 10 feet in height. The 

 chambers are of irregular shape, and occasionally a larger central cham- 

 ber forms a kind of vestibule to several smaller ones gathered about it. 

 The smaller chambers are sometimes at the same altitude as the central 

 or i)rincipal one, and sometimes at a lower altitude. About one hundred 

 and fifty of these chambers have been excavated. Most of them are now 

 partly filled by the caving iu of the walls and ceilings, but some of them 

 are yet in a good state of preservation. In these chambers, and about 

 them on the summit and sides of the cinder cone, man}" stone implements 

 were found, especially metates. Some bone implements also were dis- 

 covered. At the very summit of the little cone there is a plaza, inclosed 

 by a rude wall made of volcanic cinders, the floor of which was care- 

 fully levelled. The plaza is about 45 by 75 feet iu area. Here the 

 people lived in underground honses — chambers hewn from the friable 

 volcanic cinders. Before them, to the south, west, and north stretched 

 beautiful valleys, beyond which volcanic cones are seen rising amid pine 

 forests. The people probably cultivated patches of ground in the low 

 valleys. 



About IS miles still farther to the east of San Francisco Mountain 

 another ruined village was discovered, built about the crater of a vol- 

 canic cone. This volcanic peak is of much greater magnitude. The 

 crater opens to the eastward. On the south many stone dwellings have 

 been built of the basaltic and cinder-like rocks. Between the ridge on 

 the south and another ou the northwest there is a low saddle in which 

 other buildings have been erected, and in which a great plaza was 

 found, much like the one previously described. But the most interest- 

 ing part of this village was on the cliff which rose on the northwest side 

 of the crater. In this cliff are many natural caves, and the caves 

 themselves were utilized as dwellings by inclosing them iu front with 

 walls made of volcanic rocks and cinders. These cliff dwellings are 

 placed tier above tier, in a very irregular way. In many cases natural 

 caves were thus utilized; iu other cases cavate chambers were made; 

 that is, chambers have been excavated in the friable cinders. On the 

 very summit of the ridge stone buildings were erected, so that tliis vil- 



