4 
48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
The inhabitants_of the great compound first described obtained 
their water supply by means of two principal reservoirs fed by the 
drainage from the great sandstone shelf on the southern slope of the 
mesa summit. These reservoirs are natural depressions in the rock, 
but the epee of the larger one, which measures 35 by 90 feet and 
is about 5 feet in maximum depth, has been greatly augmented on 
the western side by an artificial retaining wall 14 feet long and 10 
feet in thickness, with an exposed face of 24 feet on the reservoir side. 
So well did this reservoir evidently serve the ancient mesa-dwellers, 
that, during seasons of unusual rain, water still stands to a consider- 
able depth within the depression. The smaller reservoir is triangular 
in outline and measures about 15 by 19 feet. An interesting feature 
in connection with the larger reservoir is the remains of a rude dike 
extending 60 feet along the rocky shelf above referred to, built for the 
purpose of diverting the flow of rain water from its natural course 
into the reservoir. 
Jt is not yet known where the ancients of this pueblo customarily 
buried their dead, but probably the interments were made in the 
talus of the mesa, as is the case with the Hopi, of Arizona, to-day. 
There was found, however, in the corner of a shallow cavern in the 
northern face of the mesa, above the talus, a small cist, formed by 
a low and broken wall of masonry, which contained the somewhat 
incomplete skeletons of two adult females, one incomplete skeleton 
of a boy, and the incomplete and defective skeletons of two infants. 
With one exception these remains had been greatly disturbed by 
rats, which had burrowed their way through the bones and their 
accompaniments to the bottom of the cist and fairly filled the re- 
pository with cactus spines, excreta, and other débris of nest build- 
ing. The remains were accompanied with several pottery vessels, 
chiefly bowls, one of which was covered with a well-preserved mat, 
plaited of a fibrous plant which Mr. Lyster H. Dewey, of the De- 
partment of Agriculture, identifies as a scirpus, and almost cer- 
tainly Scirpus validus. The ornamentation of this pottery, as well 
as of the numerous sherds scattered about the ruins, consists of 
plain red, black on red, white on red, plain black, black on white, 
brown on white, brown on red, and many other combinations of 
color. All the decorations noted were in geometrical designs. 
On the northern face of the mesa, but practically hidden from 
view except from one point in the valley below, is a small house 
shelter of excellent masonry, built beneath an overhanging ledge 
of the cliff which forms the roof. This shelter, which is provided 
with a single small opening overlooking the valley to the northward, 
was seemingly designed as a lookout station either for watching the 
crops or an approaching foe. Across the valley, on the eastern side 
of the first great mesa directly opposite that on which the ruins are 
