MESA VEEDE PUEBLO FEWKES. 471 



broken down ; here (fig. 1, a, a, a,) buttresses were necessary. Near a 

 recess situated midway in the length of the wall props {aa, aa) had 

 been constructed by the aborigines to hold it from falling while the 

 building was still occupied. The east wall also leaned considerably 

 and had to be repaired. There is fine masonry in certain portions of 

 all these walls (pi. 9, fig. 2; pi. 10, fig. 2), but on the whole it was 

 inferior to that seen at Sun Temple. 



As the number of rooms is greater than in Sun Temple, the work 

 of excavation was more laborious than in the preceding summer, the 

 shattered walls necessitating more repair work. The walls of a 

 few rooms had been constructed on sand foundations, indicating 

 that these rooms had been deserted and reoccupied. Other walls 

 showed evidences of having been repaired while rooms were still occu- 

 pied. The writer had no doubt that the building was a habitation, 

 as many objects of household use were found at all depths from the 

 very inception of the work. 



The main north wall, exclusive of a small room of unknown use 

 on the northwest angle, measures 113 feet from the northeast to the 

 northwest corner, and was formerly about 20 feet high. The east 

 wall extends 50^ feet and the west wall 64^ feet, both averaging 

 about 10 feet high. There is a court surrounded by remnants 

 of a wall rising a foot out of the ground on the south side. This 

 wall rises highest where it joins the southeast and southwest angles 

 of the main building. About ntidway in its length there is a recess 

 in the south wall, evidently intended to hide the entrance ladder, 

 resembling a similar recess at Sun Temple and Cliff Palace. The 

 angles of this recess and the accompanying wall show good masonr}^ ; 

 the corners inclined slightly outward, not being properly bonded to 

 the remaining wall. The masonry throughout is fair but shows all 

 the faults of cliff dwellers' work; joints unbroken, corners not bonded 

 or properly tied to the other walls. The adjoining surfaces of the 

 superposed stones were not flat, the mason relying upon slivers 

 of stones, set in mud, to fill the intervals between them. He so mul- 

 tiplied the number of these stones that it weakened the walls, for the 

 mud in which these were inserted easily washed out and the walls 

 became unstable in course of time, notwithstanding they are thick, 

 though in some cases the walls are narrow, not more than a few 

 inches wide. Marks of human hands, and in a few instances im- 

 pressions of corncobs were seen in the pointing of the walls — the 

 latter perhaps accidental; no marks of a trowel were found. 



Large, flat, thin, unworked stones set on edge occur at the south- 

 west inner corner, where the wall surrounding the court joins the 

 south wall of the main building. These stones are of such a size that 

 they may be called megaliths, as it Avould require three men to handle 

 one of them. Their insertion in the wall is regarded as a survival 



