ARCHEOLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA. 327 



color of wares, due to careless methods of collection. The presence 

 of fine yellow pottery of Hopi type in these mixed lots of gray, red, 

 etc., led the writer to attempt to disentangle the problem in May, 

 L901, but sand storms prevented more than a glance at a few ruins on 

 Le Roux Wash. In September, after the close of work with the 

 Museum-Gates expedition, the thread was taken up again. The serv- 

 ices of Juan Baca, the most assiduous •'pottery digger" of this region 

 of the Southwest, were secured, and an extensive reconnoissance was 

 carried out, resulting in the mapping of the ruins to 4o miles north of 

 Holbrook. (Plates 30 and (55.) Plans of the more important ruins 

 were made (Plate 66), photographs taken, some pottery and pottery 

 fragments and a few crania collected. 



The Cottonwood Wash ruins are scattered about in an area of per- 

 haps 30 square miles, mostly along the north side of the stream east and 

 west of the crossing of the Holbrook-Keams Canyon road, at T miles 

 south of Biddahoochee. (See sketch map, Plate (55.) From this 

 crossing the Cottonwood runs southwest, entering the Little Colorado 

 near Winslow. The upper portion of the stream is indefinite on the 

 maps, and it is only possible to say that the wash parallels Le Roux 

 Wash and has important branches from the north among the Mold 

 Buttes on the 6. 000-foot contour. 



The first ruin examined lies on the level plain, <A or 5 miles north- 

 east of the buttes between which the Holbrook road passes. The 

 location is at the head of a small, narrow canyon running north to the 

 Cottonwood. The ruin is fairly large and is divided into two sections 

 by the canyon; the part to the west is rectangular, and the eastern 

 section is roughly circular. A seep spring, now dry, exists in the 

 canyon below the ruins. The labors of coyotes and other animals 

 digging for water were evident here. The numerous potsbards are 

 mostly of fine yellow ware; some fragments of thin red, with enamel 

 decoration, and of white, with green enamel decoration, were seen. 



Following down the canyon to the Cottonwood Wash and going west 

 to the Navaho hogans, near where the Holbrook road crosses, a large 

 ruin on the bluff was examined and sketched (Plate 66). The ruin 

 consists of a quadrangle on the level at the top of the bluff and a pro- 

 longation conforming to a promontory bounded on the west by a 

 deep ravine. From the number of human bones scattered about it is 

 evident that the cemeteries had contained many burials. The pottery 

 fragments are abundant and of fine quality like those of the ruins just 

 described. On the same bluff, not far away, is a small ruin belonging 

 to this group. 



The Navahos in the valley have impounded the waters of the wash 

 by means of a dam, thus securing enough water to last for several 

 years. Several of the Indians told me that there is an ancient ruin on 

 the summit of the laro-e butte across the valley. Lack of time 



