FEWKEs] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 13 



Rooms 21 and 22 are three stories high, the entrances to the three 

 tiers being seen in the accompanying view (pL 6). The beams that 

 once supported the balcony of the third story resemble those of the 

 first story; they project from the wall that forms the front of room 29. 



The external entrance to room 24 opens directly on the plaza. 

 Some of the rafters of this room still remain, and near the rear door 

 is a projecting wall, in the corner of which is a fireplace. Although 

 room 25 is three stories high, it does not reach to the cave top. None 

 of the roofs of the rooms one over another are intact, and the west 

 side of the second and third stories is very much broken. The plas- 

 ter of the second-story walls is decorated with mural paintings that 

 will be considered more fully under Pictographs. It is not evident 

 how entrance through the doorway of the second story was made 

 unless we suppose that there was a notched log, or ladder, for that 

 purpose resting on the ground. In order to strengthen the north wall 

 of room 25 it was braced against the Avails of outer rooms by con- 

 structing masonry above the doorway that leads from plaza D to 

 room 2G. This tied all three walls together and imparted corre- 

 sponding strength to the whole. 



The lower-story walls of room 26 are in fairly good condition, hav- 

 ing needed but little repair. There is a good fireplace in the floor at 

 the northeast corner. Excavations revealed a passageway from kiva 

 D into room 26, the opening into the upper room being situated near 

 its north wall. The west wall of room 26 is curved. The walls of 

 rooms 27 and 28 are much dilapidated, the portion of the western 

 section that remains being continuous with the front wall of the 

 pueblo. A small mural fragment ending blindly arises from the 

 outside of the west wall of room 27. This is believed to have been 

 part of a small enclosure used for cooking purposes. Much repairing 

 was necessary in the walls of rooms 27 and 28, since the}^ were situ- 

 ated almost directlj^ in the way of torrents of water which in time 

 of rains fall over the rim of the canyon. 



The block of rooms numbered 30—14, situated east of kiva E, have 

 the most substantial masonrj^ and are the best constructed of any in 

 Spruce-tree House. (PI. 9.) As room 45 is only a dark passage- 

 Avay it should be considered more a street than a dwelling. Rooms 

 30-36 are one story each in height, rectangular in shape, roofless, and 

 of about the same dimensions; of these room 35 is perhaps the best 

 preserved, having well-constructed fireplaces in one corner. Rooms 



37, 38, 39 are built deep in the cavern ; their walls, especially those of 



38, are very much broken down. There would seem to be hardly a 

 possibility that these rooms were inhabited, especially after the con- 

 struction of the rooms in front of the cave which shut off all light. 

 But they may easily have served as storage places. Their walls were 



