i68 



THE MUSEUM. 



Oliver W. Ginii.s 



Who presided over this year's meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 



Riding 



forest brings you to them 

 through the dense pines and cedars, in 

 the coolest and most invigorating of 

 summer attriospheres, the visitor is ab- 

 ruptly confronted with a great white- 

 walled canyon that looms suddenly 

 upon the vision vs the conveyance 

 emerges fioin the canopy of trees to a 

 sort of picnic and refreshment ground. 

 Though it would occupy an infinites- 

 mal space in the world's mightiest nat- 

 ural wonder — 'he Grand Canyon of 

 the Colorado — this canyon is itself 

 quite a pretentious hole in the ground, 

 being of 800 feet in depth and of suf- 

 ficient length and breadth to give the 

 spectator an idea of immensity. A 

 trail, well beaten some places but 

 scarcely discernable in others, leads to 

 the choicest of the dwellings in this 



pirt of the canyc n, the pic- 

 turesque sides of which are 

 l)one\ combed with these in- 

 teiestirg evidences of a pre- 

 historic race People unac- 

 quainted with the location 

 of the trail have made the 

 de!-r( nt in an iinprac icable, 

 hriphr-'zatd way that carries 

 with it an element of peril 

 and is decidedly a venture- 

 snie experience to the ine.x- 

 pert or unwieldy tnountain- 

 eer. The sides of the can- 

 yon are in many places as 

 sheer almost as the walls 

 of a house, and a misstep or 

 a flimsy foothold is very apt 

 to let the unfortunate into 

 eternity without advance no- 

 tice cf an eleventh-hour pre- 

 l>a ration. Not far from the 

 hrink, by way of the regular 

 trail, you will traverse a de- 

 clivitous prom.enade to a ser- 

 ies of Aztec homes that are 

 comparatively w-ell preserv- 

 ed. The cliff dwellings &re 

 all of the same general form- 

 ation. The overhanging 

 bluffs of rock lap over cave- 

 like recesses that were 



divided into apartments 



by walls of lime and stone, 

 which were also used in the construc- 

 tion of the front part of the dwellings. 

 Most of these walls are now shattered 

 and tottering, though enough of them 

 remain to show commendable work- 

 manship, considering the indifferent 

 material at hand. 



The popular presumption is that the 

 population of the cliff dwellings was 

 considerable, for the industrious relic- 

 hunter may still unearth the po'ttery 

 and battle-axes of the inhabitants, and 

 discoveries of this kind are treasured 

 as priceless possessions. The pottery 

 is of the same general desit,n as that 

 of the Pueblo Indians, the study of 

 whose racial characteristics, customs 

 and manner of living form an always 

 absorbing theme. The Pueblos are 



