310 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



with fragments of pottery, house 1 stones, and other debris. The locution 

 of the group was known by two or three cattlemen only who had ridden 

 over the site, and to this fact is due the preservation of the remains 

 from the vandals who have ransacked the ancient pueblos of the South- 

 west for a number of years without let or hindrance. The environment 

 at present is quite hostile, and there is no evidence that there has been 

 any great change in the climate for centuries. Clay and stone are 

 abundant, but the scarcity of food animals and plants, firewood, etc.. 

 coupled with the lack of water, render it somewhat of a mystery why 

 the people primarily located in this region. It is probable, however, 

 that the juniper forest formerly spread more widely over this section 

 where areas of it now exist, having- escaped the great denudation in 

 progress. It has also been thought that a progressive desiccation is 

 taking place in the Southwest; no observational data is at hand to sub- 

 stantiate this theory, and the generalization perhaps arises from the 

 C3^cles of dry and wet years that have been noted by settlers in the 

 country. 



All the Canyon Butte Wash ruins face the east, the houses at the 

 back of the pueblos having been two or more stories in height. The 

 plan of the ruin varies; one is semicircular, another is ovate, another 

 is rectangular, with one rounded or stepped corner; the remaining one 

 is rectangular. The materials are small slabs of Triassic sandstone 

 laid in mud, and the masonry shows little skill in breaking joints and 

 tying corners. The exterior walls are 10 inches thick; the walls between 

 the rooms 7 inches thick; the floors of stone slabs; the rear wall was 

 plain and perhaps without openings. The rooms average about 7 by 

 10 feet in floor area, a size rarely departed from in the Pueblo region: 



The cemeteries are northeast of the village at a short distance from 

 the house walls. The dead were laid to face the same point of com- 

 pass and covered with slabs of sandstone placed slanting over the bod} r 

 at a depth of from 2 to 7 feet. Detached house sites, altars, tire boxes, 

 etc., were observed near the ruins. The debris of house refuse is con- 

 siderable in amount, and yields bones of the rabbit, dog, turkey, rodents, 

 and antelope. 



In detail, the results of investigations of the ruins are as follows: 



Ruin X<>. 1 (Plate :'>'.»), the most important of the group, is semi- 

 circular in outline, two rooms deep, the mound standing high at the 

 hack, indicating a terrace story. In the center of the court, near 

 the house walls, is a depression about 20 feet in diameter. There are 

 also traces of constructions in the court, which slopes down to the 

 opening. To the northeast, in a low elliptic mound of house refuse, 

 is the cemetery. Near the southeast end of this mound is a flat cir- 

 cular area having a heap of concretions and stones of odd and sug- 

 gestive shapes and colors. Some of the stones are worked cylinders 

 and spheres. Numerous tubular pipes of lava were scattered among 



