16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 1 bill. 51 



tlie uninitiated, chance alone can ;,Mii(h' the explorer to the exact spot from which 

 a view of ("liff Palace is possible. 



The descent to the luin may be made from the mesa either on the opposite 

 side o-f the canon, or on the same a few hundred pac- s north or south of the 

 clitif-dwelling. The ClifT Palace is probably the largest ruin of its kind known in 

 the United States. I here give a plan of the ruin' (PI. XI) together with a 

 photograph thereof, taken from the south end of the cave (PL XII). In the 

 plan, which represents the ground f]oor, over a hundred rooms are shown. 

 About twenty of them are estufas. Among the rubbish and stones in front of 

 the ruin a few more walls, not marked in the plan, may possibly be distinguished. 



Plate XIII, as I have just mentioned, is a photograph of the Cliff Palace from 

 the south. To the extreme left of the plate a number of much dilapidated walls 

 may be seen. They correspond to rooms 1-12 in the plan. To the right of 

 these walls lies a whole block of rooms (13-18), several stories high and 

 built on a huge rock which has fallen from the roof of the cave. The outermost 

 room (14 in the plan; to the left in PI. XIII) is bounded on the outside by 

 a high wall, the outlines of which stand off sharply from the dark backgiound 

 of the cave. The wall is built in a quadrant at the edge of the rock just men- 

 tioned, which has been carefully dressed, the wall thus forming apparently an 

 immediate continuation of the rock. The latter is coursed by a fissure which 

 also extends through the wall. This crevice must therefore have appeared sub- 

 sequent to the building operation. To the right of this curved wall (still in 

 PI. XIII) lie four rooms (15-18 in the plan), and in front of them two 

 terraces (21-22) connected by a step. One of the rooms is surrounded by 

 walls three stories high and reaching up to the roof of the cave. The terraces 

 are bounded to the noi'th (the left in PI. XIIl) by ;i rather high wall, standing 

 apart from the remainder of the building. Not far from the rooms just men- 

 tioned, but a little farther back, lie two cylindrical chambers (21 «, 23). The 

 wall of 21 rt is shown in PI. XIII with a beam resting against it. The beam had 

 been placed there by one of the Wetherills to assist him in climbing to an upper 

 ledge, where low walls, resembling the fortress ;it Long House (p. 28), rise 

 almost to the roof of the cave. The round room 23 is joined by a wall to a 

 long series of chambers (2(3-41), which are very low, though their walls extend 

 to the rock above them. They probably served as storerooms. These chambers 

 front on a " street," on the opposite side of which lie a number of apartments" 

 (42-50), among them a remarkable estufa (44) described at greater length 

 below. In front of 44 lies another estufa (51), and not far from the latter 

 a third (52). 



The "street" leads to an open space. Here lie three estufas (54, 55, 56), 

 partly siuik in the gi'ound. Much lower down is situated another estufa (57) 

 of the same type as 44. It is surrounded by high walls.^ South of the open 

 space lie a few large rooms (58-()l). A tower (63 in the plan; the large 

 tower to the right in PI. XIII) is situated still farther south, beside a steep 

 ledge. This ledge, north of the tower (to the left in the plate), once formed a 

 free terrace (62), bounded on the outside by a low wall along the margin. 

 South of the tower is an estufa (76) surrounded by an open space, sou the;' st 

 of which are a number of rooms (80-87). In most of them, even in the 

 outermost ones, the walls are in an excellent state of preservation. The wall 



"The room marked 48 in the plan is visible in "1. XIII. Vlmost in the center of the 

 plate, but a little to tlie rijrht, two small loopho".. may be seen, and to their right a 

 doorway, all of which belong to room 48; the walls of 40 and 50 are much lower than 

 those of 48. Behind 48 the high walls of 4r! may l)e distinguished. 



'■They are shown in the plate just to the left of the fold at its middle, rather low down. 



