18 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



and south, with ledges of bare rock makiag a kind of wall to the southward 

 and westward. Still proceeding eastwardly, we pass over some two hundred 

 feet of bare, smooth rock, when we come to two other groups of ruins (6), about 

 four hundred feet in length, one on each side and overhanging the respective 

 bluffs on the north and south sides of the plateau. There are about eighty 

 huts in each of these groups on the summit, making probably about two 

 hundred in all, when averaged at two stories high. They are similar to those 

 just described, being made of stone cemented together with mud, and arranged 

 in rooms of from six to ten feet square, those in the basement story being 

 connected by openings underground. Between these groups of huts the space 

 is nearly or quite two hundred feet wide. 



We did not find any rooms among them answering to the description 

 given by several explorers of the estufas, where the sacred fire was kept 

 burning, unless the circular, stone-lined basins, within the court of the larger 

 village, may have been originally covered over and used for such a purpose. 

 (Dr. Hammond, who accompanied Lieutenant Simpson in his United States 

 military reconnoissance in New Mexico, in describing the ruins of Chaco, 

 speaks of sacred estufas, circular in form, excavated several feet deep in the 

 earth, and inclosed with circular walls.) The fact that no water, except per- 

 haps the drippings from the roofs of the upper tier of huts, could naturally 

 find its way into these basins, gives probability to the suggestion that they 

 may have been constructed for estufas, instead of for storing water. 



On the south side of the plateau, about half-way between the first and sec- 

 ond village, is a gateway in the outer wall, which in that part is six or seven 

 feet high and from three to four feet thick. This gateway is about ten feet 

 wide, and was apparently made to enable the inhabitants to pass out their 

 stock to graze and to water in the inclosures which will be described a little 

 later. 



Having now described nearly everything on the plateau that seems to be- 

 long to the Aztec civilization, we will pass out of the gate just mentioned, 

 on to the slope that descends gradually to the Pecos river, which winds its 

 way along at a distance of a few hundred yards to the southwardly. 



The first thing which attracts our attention is a long stretch of ruined 

 wall, which extends in a southwestwardly direction from a point within about 

 120 feet from the gate to the bank of the river, 600 feet away. Just beyond 

 the upper end of this wall we find an inclosure (8), walled all the way around, 

 390 feet by about 120 feet, and banked up with earth at the lower part, as if 

 to retain water. Just at the lower corner there appears to have been an 

 artificial outlet through the dam and wall, for prudential purposes. Within 

 this inclosure is a circular artificial pond, also banked up with earth, about 

 seventy-five feet in diameter. Just east of this inclosure and a little further 

 up the slope is another (8), apparently constructed for the same purpose, being 

 nearly as large, and banked up across the lower part in a similar manner. 

 Within this, also, is a smaller circular pond, 120 feet across, which even at 

 this time was muddy in the center, although it did not contain any water. 



