FEWKES] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PABK 7 



that these small rooms were shriues where offerings to the gods were deposited. 

 No object has, however, been found to confirm this suggestion. 



To the right of fig. 27 a huge spruce may be seeu. Its roots lie within the 

 ruins of Sprucetree House, the trunk projecting from the wall of an estufa. 

 In PI. X : 1 the tree is wanting. I had it cut down in order to ascertain its 

 age. We counted the rings, which were very distinct, twice over, the results 

 being respectively 167 and 169. I had supposed from the thickness of the tree 

 that the number of the rings was much greater, 



GENERAL FEATURES 



Like the majority of cliff-dwellings in the Mesa Verde National 

 Park, Spriice-tree House stands in a recess protected above by an 

 overhanging cliff. Its form is crescentic, following that of the cave 

 and extending approximately north and south. 



The author has given the number of rooms and their dimensions in 

 his report to the Secretary of the Interior (published in the latter's 

 report for 1907-8) from which he makes the following quotation: 



The total length of Spruce-tree House was found to be 216 feet, its width 

 at the widest part 89 feet. There were counted in the Spruce-tree House 114 

 rooms, the majority of which were secular, and 8 ceremonial chambers or 

 kivas. Nordenskiold numbered 80 of the former and 7 of the latter, but in this 

 count he apparently did not differentiate in the former those of the first, second 

 and third stories. Spruce-tree House was in places 3 stories high ; the third- 

 story rooms had no artificial roof, but the wall of the cave served that purpose. 

 Several rooms, the walls of which are now two stories high, formerly had a 

 third story above the second, but their walls have now fallen, leaving as the 

 only indication of their former union with the cave lines destitute of smoke 

 on the top of the cavern. Of the 114 rooms, at least 14 were uninhabited, being 

 used as storage and mortuary chambers. If we eliminate these from the total 

 number of rooms we have 100 enclosures which might have been dwellings. 

 Allowing 4 inhabitants for each of these 100 rooms would give about 400 persons 

 as an aboriginal population of Spruce-tree House. But it is probable that this 

 estimate should be reduced, as not all the 100 rooms were inhabited at the same 

 time, there being evidence that several of them had occupants long after others 

 were deserted. Approximately, Spruce-tree House had a population not far 

 from 350 people, or about 100 more than that of Walpi, one of the best-known 

 Hopi pueblos." 



In the rear of the houses are two large recesses used for refuse- 

 heaps or for burial of the dead. From the abundance of guano and 

 turkey bones it is supposed that turkeys were kept in these places for 

 ceremonial or other purposes. Here have been foinid several desic- 

 cated human bodies commonly called mummies. 



The ruin is divided by a street into two sections, the northern 

 and the southern, the former being the more extensive. Light is 

 prevented from entering the larger of these recesses by rooms which 

 reach the roof of the cave. In front of these rooms are circular sub- 



" On the author's plan of Spruce-treo House from a sui'vey by Mr. S. G. Morley, the 

 third story is Indicated by crosshatching, the second by parallel lines, while the first hag 

 no markings. (PI. 1.) 



