16 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



the adjacent ground, and commands a view of the valleys on both sides, as well 

 as of the plateau beyond, upon which the village is built. From all indica- 

 tions, this was a fort or lookout tower. (W. H. Holmes, in Bulletin No. 1 

 of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 

 vol. II, 1876, describes the ruins of a tower found in the Mancos canon in 

 Colorado, probably similar to this, whose outer dimensions were forty-five 

 feet in diameter, and twelve feet in height at the highest point of the wall 

 yet standing, which is twenty-one inches in thickness. It was double-walled, 

 with apartments between the outer and inner walls. On the mesa above the 

 bed of the river McElmo, a square-shaped tower was discovered standing in 

 on the summit of a great block of sandstone, forty feet high, and detached 

 from the bluff back of it. At another place on the McElmo, the ruins of a 

 triple-walled tower were found, with sectional apartments between the outer 

 and second walls; and such towers abound on prominent points all along the 

 Gila, Chaco, Rio Grande, and other rivers of Colorado and New Mexico.) 

 Proceeding eastwardly, we descend from this point some twenty feet or more 

 to a long and narrow passage of bare rock, not less than 1,000 feet long, by 

 an average width of about 100 feet. On the north side, this passage is de- 

 fended by a stone wall running along the edge of the rock for a distance of 

 about 300 feet. For the remainder of the distance to the foot of the bluff 

 upon which the ruined village is built, there is no sign of any work done by 

 man. 



At the foot of the bluff just mentioned, we come upon the remains of a 

 stone wall, which runs around both sides of the plateau from village to 

 church, being in its whole length not less than 2,000 feet. This wall seems 

 to have been intended for defense, as it is located on the extreme edge of the 

 plateau, all around, just where the steep and almost perpendicular declivity 

 begins. 



Commencing here, we are amazed at the size of these ruins. (4.) The build- 

 ings were commenced at the foot of the bluff, the rooms of the first story being, 

 say, eight by ten feet, and about seven feet in height. The rooms on this 

 floor have no doors in the side walls, but are entered from the roof, which is 

 reached by a ladder. Upon this story another is built, which is set back from 

 the front of the first, and like it, leans against the side of the bluff. This 

 story has doors in the front of the rooms, which are entered from the roof of 

 the lower story. In this way as many as six or seven stories are built, one 

 upon another, and the buildings are extended laterally as far as the neces- 

 sities of the community demand, all united as closely together as cells in a 

 honey-comb. 



In this Pecos village there were not less than 1,000 rooms, and probably 

 many more. I could readily count 200 rooms at the top, and from four to 

 six stories on the sides of the bluff. The whole group seemed to consist of 

 two irregular circles, the larger of which extended partially around the end 

 of a rocky bluff, about thirty feet high above the bare rock just described, 



