318 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



entire absence of pottery fragments indicate a short occupation of this 

 pueblo. On the rocks under the mesa near by, however, is one of the 

 most remarkable galleries of petroglyphs that it has been my good for- 

 tune to see. The designs are mostly of animals, a bird with long bill 

 occurring frequently. No familiar symbols were noted. 



METATE. 



Across the wash from the Petrified Bridge is a ruin covering the 

 apex and extending about halfway down the flanks of a conical hill. 

 The houses were rectangular and were built of lava blocks. The hill 

 bristles with oval inclosures and lines formed b}^ setting on edge large 

 slabs of stone, principally those worked out as nictates, and from the 

 number of these objects the site was given its name. The ruin is badly 

 washed and blown out, and it was not thought profitable to work it, but 

 a careful examination was made, a little excavation prosecuted, and a 

 number of specimens gathered from the surface debris. The pottery is 

 of coarse texture and undecorated except by lines scratched in the paste 

 or by indentation in the coil, the colors gray-brown and black. The 

 former inhabitants were workers in stone, as is evidenced by the pro- 

 fusion of such relics in the great accumulations of debris and the numer- 

 ous metates and stone battering hammers. Several axes, a digging 

 stone of chert, and the half of a tubular pipe of curious form were 

 picked up. The metate people were in touch with primitive com- 

 merce, as fragments of wristlets cut from seashell manifest. 



It must be acknowledged that Metate ruin is an archaeological 

 enigma in the light of present knowledge. It is possible, however, 

 thai a survey of the ruins in the Navaho Springs region, where pottery 

 with scratched ornamentation occurs, would clear up the matter. On 

 weathered sandstone rocks near Metate ruin faint petroglyphs may be 

 traced. 



Three small ruins on the bluff above Metate ruin belong, from the 

 character of the pottery fragments, with the Canyon Butte ruins north 

 of the forest. 



WOODRUFF. 



The pyramidal lava-covered mass called Woodruff or Canyon Butte, 

 the Mesa Prieta of the Mexicans, a prominent landmark over a wide 

 region in northeastern Arizona, has on its southern terrace a remark- 

 able series of circular remains. These circular platforms are from 50 

 to 75 feet in diameter, bordered with lava blocks. The platforms are 

 level and smooth and have no traces of constructions upon them. 

 Seventy circles were counted beginning about halfway down the butte 

 and stretching both as connected and disconnected terraces to the edge 

 of the bluff above the Lee farm house. Near the northeast end of the 



