HEWETT] ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEMEZ PLATEAU 2 i 



Pajarito canyons. Here the potreros reach stupendous heights and 

 the canyons correspondingly great depths. A thorough knowledge of 

 Indian trails is all that will enable one to penetrate this labyrinth. 

 For description of the remarkable antiquities from Rito de los Frijoles 

 to Canada de Cochiti the writer can do no better than to quote Mr 

 A. F. Bandelier, the pioneer archeologist of this region. The pho- 

 tographs here reproduced were made on the present author's third 

 field trip to this section in the summer of 1905. Mr Bandelier 

 says : °' 



''From the southern edge of the Ziro-Ka-uash, or Mesa del Paja- 

 rito, we look down into the Rito as into a narrow valley several miles 

 long and closed in the west by rocky ledges, over which the stream 

 descends to the bottom lands of 



the Rito. Through these it flows t'T^-'--'-'^-^-'-'-'-'-'-l-'-^~'^-:^-: 



for several miles as a gushing |;it;:::::-p^;;-;-; jH i {; 

 brook, enlivened by trout, bor- |j:;::i:Vj:J.-l^^■i^^^-; i^j;'| 



dered by thickets of various , f ■t;";"! ...^^^ l-'iri'l 



kinds of shrubbery, and shaded j^ |;:;i1;;:.| / \ lifr 



at intervals by groves of pine, ^fj-P[-i-l \^^ ,/ |trr 



and tall, isolated trees of stately t'.T^-'jJ lljr 



appearance. In the east, not far \r[{:l^-'\'r'^'ff^^:^^"^tii:^-'^ 



from the Rio Grande, a narrow, |-^;-i -j ;;•■-! l^-l'RF::?:^ 



frowning gateway is formed by m^^jr^.iJ^'^:^^^^ 

 lofty rocks of black basalt, leav- ^|-;-| 

 ing space for the bed of the lt;|-;-| ' 



stream, the waters of which ^^l-i-l cr^.^'' 



reach the river only during %f4 ..^-'^'"^'"^ 



freshets, while in the valley thev ^,- -r.v^-^-'----" 



/. 1 " fiG. i5.— Ground plan of ruin no. 20. 



are permanent. The slope of the 



mesa lining the Rito on the south is gradual, though steep; ledges and 

 crags of pumice protrude from the shrubs and grass growing over it. 

 Tall pines crown it above. The average depth of the Rito below 

 both mesas is several hundred feet; in places, perhaps as much as 

 500 or more. It is not properly a valley, since its greatest width 

 hardly attains half a mile, but a gorge or 'canon' with a fertile bottorh 

 and a brook running through it. . . . 



"As seen from the brink of the southern mesa, the view of the 

 Rito is as surprising as it is picturesque. 



"The effect is heightened by the appearance of a great number 

 of little doorways along the foot of the cliffs, irregularly alternating 

 with larger cavities indicating caves, the fronts of which have par- 

 tially or completely crumbled away. The base of the cliffs rises and 



a Papers of the Archaeological Institute of America, American series, IV, Final Report, part ii, 

 p. 139, Cambridge, Mass., 1892. 



