76 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



some instances the weathering away of the sandstone rock had carried away these 

 little houses except the back wall and a deep bed of ashes, in which were bones of 

 deer and birds, and vessels of pottery. I noticed several detached projecting rocks 

 supported by a solid wall of stone laid in adobe mortar, and under the rock a bed of 

 ashes two or three feet deep. On the east side of this hill, buried in the loose sand 

 and earth, I found a human skeleton of unusual appearance. The bones were large, 

 coarse and angular, the joints knotty, the legs excessively bowed, the skull small, 

 with projecting jaws. It can be seen at the State University. 



The Mexicans of San Mateo, only one or two of whom spoke English, told me of 

 another ruined city, fifty miles northwest in an uninhabited country, destitute of water, 

 and unknown to explorers. Waiting till the rainy season set in, I employed a Mexican 

 guide well mounted, and set out in search of the unknown pueblo. An Indian trail 

 followed alongside of or between walls of brilliant red and yellow sandstone 500 to 

 1,000 feet high. At an abandoned Navajo encampment we observed a number of 

 Indian sweat houses made of poles leaning together, covered with bark and earth, air 

 tight, large enough for one person to crawl in, first placing vessels of water inside, into 

 which they put hot stones, while a friend outside closes the small entrance. The re- 

 sult is an extremely hot steam bath. The approach to the Continental Divide was 

 very gradual; a carriage could be driven over our route by removing a few rocks and 

 fallen trees. The divide is a level mesa half a mile in width, with a scattering, stunted 

 growth of cedar, then in bloom, and the ground covered with the merest apology 

 of a coat of grass, barely an inch high. At the western edge of the divide is a bed 

 of calcite crystals, and lower down we rode over a cropjiing vein of lignite coal six 

 or eight feet thick, of excellent quality. This vein extended along and cropped out 

 of the high red-sandstone wall to our left like a black ribbon, for twenty miles, with 

 500 feet of sandstone above it, and the descending path we followed finally left it 

 as many feet up the side of the clifif. 



Towards evening of the second day the towering ruins we sought rose before us, 

 situated on a gentle slope at the junction of two fertile valleys in the open plain. 

 In the center of the town had been built the citadel, or fortress, its upper stories a 

 fallen mass of ruins, except the center of the north wall, which, supported by a cir- 

 cular estufa, rose straight up from the ground for a distance of nearly 50 feet, includ- 

 ing three full stories and a portion of the fourth. From the top of the first story, 16 

 feet above the ground, projected the ends of cedar beams 10 or 12 inches in diameter, 

 indicating a veranda around the building. These projecting ends were so hard my 

 knife failed to make an impression on them, yet the prevailing west wind had weath- 

 ered away a quarter of their diameter on the exposed side. These heavy beams, 

 more than twenty feet in length, were only found in the caiions of the high cliffs five 

 miles distant. The north wall of this building was 136 feet in length, with a smooth, 

 true face; six feet from the ground was a course of stone six to eight inches thick, 

 and four feet long. With this exception the stone were of medium size, and decreased 

 in thickness from the ground upwards. The first story contained 36 layers of stone, 

 the second 35, the third 42, and the remnant of the fourth 31; in all, 144. Back of 

 this building on rising ground is a circular estufa sunk in the ground, of unknown 

 depth, as it is nearly filled with blowing dust. It is forty feet in diameter, a perfect 

 circle, walled with smooth stone of uniform size, of 2x6-inch face. In front of the 

 large building was a reservoir for holding water, supplied by a ditch running for 

 half a mile west, which caught and conveyed the surface-water from a long slope in 

 time of rain. We found no water except in pot-holes in the rock. A party of Nav- 

 ajoes j)assing, we offered them liberal pay to show us living water. They informed 

 us there was none within a half -day's ride, and that a small spring to the west. On 

 asking them what people built those houses, they referred to an old gray-haired In- 

 dian of their party, who after reflection said nobody knew — they were always there. 



