THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 301 



from its native bed. We saw not a single dressed stone about the 

 ruins. These stones are laid in mortar made of the ordinary soil from 

 the ground immediately at hand. The roof of the church was evidently 

 supported by beams and covered with earth, as in the churches still 

 occupied as places of worship throughout New Mexico. We saw no 

 signs of an arch, nor any indication that those who planned and built 

 the church at Abo were at all acquainted with architecture as a science. 

 The walls over the doors and windows, so far as we could observe, 

 had been supported by beams of wood. When these had become de- 

 stroyed, those stones which were liberated above had dropped down; 

 so that now, over each window there is a rude sort of Gothic 

 arch, owing its form, not to design, but to accident. The wood-work 

 of the church was evidently destroyed by being burnt. Wherever in 

 the walls portions of beams still remain they are found charred and 

 blackened by fire. 



The form of the church alone, proves it to have been designed by 

 Christians. Perhaps the workmen employed in its construction were 

 Indians. We saw a distinct mark of an axe in one of the pieces of tim- 

 ber, which is imbedded in the east wall of the church some six feet 

 from the ground. Saws also were doubtless used, but we discovered 

 no marks of them. The stick of timber marked with the axe, and some 

 beams that supported a landing at the head of the stairway which is 

 made in the west wall, were the only pieces of wood about the ruins 

 which were not burned so much over their surface as to obliterate all 

 marks of tools. 



The extent of an exterior wall, which, from the appearance of the 

 present heaps of stones, once surrounded the church and the town, was 

 about nine hundred and forty-two feet north and south, with an average 

 width east and west, of say four hundred and fifty feet. A large popu- 

 lation must have occupied this town and its neighborhood, if one were 

 to judge of the number of people by the size of the church built to 

 accommodate them at their devotions- 



We saw few, if any, unmistakeable signs that the ground had been 

 cultivated in the vicinity of these ruins. Nor is there any good arable 

 land, so far as we could observe, at any point nearer the Rio Grande ; 

 for uplands to be arable, in the climate of New Mexico, must be so 

 situated as to be capable of irrigation. The stream of water at Abo is 

 in a deep ravine. It is very inconsiderable in point of size, and loses 

 itself in the sand in less than five hundred yards below the springs 

 which feed it. The adjacent country is rolling and broken, and cov- 

 ered with pifion and cedar. The underlying rocks are secondary red 

 sandstone. The summits of the mesas and neighboring eminences are 

 composed of grey limestone filled with marine fossils. 



It was nearly night when we reached Abo. There was a keen 

 freezing gale from the northwest, and the whole appearance of the 

 country was cheerless, wintry, and desolate. The tall ruins, standing 

 there in sohtude, had an aspect of sadness and gloom. They did not 

 seem to be the remains of an edifice dedicated to peaceful, religious 

 purposes, a place for prayer, but rather as a monument of crime, and 

 ruthlessness, and violence.' The cold wind when at its height appeared 

 to roar and howl through the roofless pile hke an angry demon. But 



