yb BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 50 
on the level of the road and extending parallel with it, are low ridges 
or mounds covered with pottery, indicating the former presence of a 
pueblo of considerable size. No walls were traced in these mounds, 
which seem to indicate the existence of an ancient cemetery, as 
several rings of small stones, suggesting graves, were found. A short 
distance beyond this supposed cemetery is a little cave, situated 
a few hundred feet to the left of the road. In this cave are a few 
walls, but the cliff-dwelling is not of great size; beyond it the road 
rises steeply to Marsh pass. (PI. 6.) 
Although some of the ruins in the Navaho Monument may be visited 
without the use of saddle horses, the largest can not now be approached 
with wagons. It would be possible at a small expense, however, 
so to improve the Indian trail up the canyon of Laguna creek that one 
could drive within a fraction of a mile of the great ruins, Betatakin 
and Kitsiel. At present, to reach these one must leave carriages at 
Marsh pass and descend with saddle horses to the bed of Laguna 
creek, which flows along the canyon, in the side branches of which are 
situated the greatest two cliff-dwellings of the region. One of these, 
Betatakin, is about six miles, the other, Kitsiel, about 10 miles, from 
Marsh pass. 
SwALLows NEST 
Descending to Laguna creek and following the bottom of the 
canyon, crossing and recrossing the stream several times, the first 
cliff-dwelling is seen built in a niche in the cliffs high up on the right. 
This ruin seems to fill the bottom of a symmetrically vaulted, 
open cave, the high arched roof and sides of which are so eroded 
that from one point of view the shadow cast by the ruin at certain 
times outlines the profile of a head and part of a human body, as 
seen in plate 7. Although a talus® extends from this ruin some dis- 
tance down the cliff, rendering access difficult, the ruin was entered, 
but found to be in a poor state of preservation. Several of the walls, 
viewed from the road, appeared to be in good condition, and some of 
the rooms are more than one story high. 
BETATAKIN 
Following the canyon about five miles from Marsh pass, the writer’s 
party came to a fork in the canyon,’ where a guide was found who 
led the way across the stream into a small side canyon, in the end of 
which lies Betatakin. This canyon is wooded and at the time of 
the writer’s visit contained plenty of water, a small stream 
a Rooms are concealed by this talus, the walls of which project in places out of the ground. 
b Laguna creek is entered at this point on the right by a stream bifurcating into the Cataract and East 
tributaries, which flow through canyons of the same names. In or near East canyon are four large 
ruins: Ladder House, Cradle House, Forest-glen House, and Pine-tree House. The largest ruin in 
Cataract canyon is Kitsiel. The Navaho sometimes speak of the East canyon as the Salt, or Alkaline, 
bokho. 
