KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 15 



ward, instead of from the North southwardly, in accordance with the tradi- 

 tions of the Aztecs. Among these authorities are Bartlett and Squier, the 

 latter of whom declares that the hypothesis of a migration from Nicaragua 

 and Cuscatlan to Anahuac or Mexico is altogether more consonant with 

 probabilities. Leaving the ethnologists to unravel this mass of contending 

 facts and themes, we will proceed with our narrative. 



Arrived at Baughl's station, on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, 

 which is no more than a siding, where railroad ties are received and handled, 

 and which simply consists of a boarding car and two saloons, we started on 

 foot for the scene of our explorations, about one mile and a half distant. 



Before we had proceeded more than half a mile, we came into view of the 

 church and ruins of Pecos, lying on a beautiful plateau on the further side 

 of the Pecos river, and separated by a narrow valley from a commanding 

 range of mountains several miles beyond. This plateau seemed to be com- 

 pletely surrounded by mountains ; those on the west being grand in their out- 

 line, and crowned by a bald peak, which appeared exactly adapted for a 

 watch-tower for the people of the city on the plateau, and perhaps for an 

 outlook for the priests of the sun, who, from its lofty summit, could catch 

 his earliest rays long before they would be visible to the people below. The 

 whole valley, from mountain range to mountain range, is about five or six 

 miles, while it seems to be inclosed at both ends by purple ranges, about ten 

 miles apart, with an occasional snow-capped peak. Thus apparently hemmed 

 in on all sides, and in the midst of what was probably in the day of their 

 prosperity a luxuriant and fertile plain, these ancient people built their 

 singular houses, and lived peaceful and quiet lives. The evidences of their 

 civilization are found in abundance, in implements for grinding corn, pottery 

 evincing various degrees of skill, and in some places in pictured rocks and 

 decorated caves. 



• These houses are very much alike in all the villages that are known, being 

 built against the sides of bluffs or rocky acclivities, one story above another, 

 to the height sometimes of five to six or seven stories. The material used is 

 stone, cemented together, and sometimes coated or plastered on the outside 

 with mud. The first story has no opening except at the top, which is reached 

 with a ladder, while the other stories have doors opening from the roofs of 

 those below. Within, or at least in the lower or basement stories, there are 

 connecting openings from one to another. The stories are separated by floors 

 of timbers laid together, and sometimes bound together with withes. Remains 

 of corner-posts, made of pine and cedar poles, are found abundantly in their 

 proper positions. 



The system of walls and outworks is very extensive, but whether it is all 

 of the same age as the village, is more than I was able to determine. Com- 

 mencing at the western end of the plateau, the first evidence of the hand of 

 man that I discovered was a circular stone wall inclosing a space thirty feet in 

 diameter. (1 in plate.) This is located upon a rocky point some 50 feet above 



