FEWKEs] ANTIQUITIES OF MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK 17 



nearest to the talus slope is metres liish and built with great care aud skill." 

 South of these rooms and close to the cliff lies a well-preserved estufa (88), 

 and south of the latter four rooms are situated, two of them (90, 92) very small. 

 The walls of the third (91) are very high and rise to the roof of the cave. At 

 one corner the walls have fallen in. This room is figured in a subsequent 

 chapter in order to show a painting found on one of its walls. Near the cliff 

 lies the last estufa (93), in an excellent state of preservation. The rooms 

 south of this estufa are bounded on the outer side by a high wall rising to the 

 rocli above it. An excellent defense was thus provided against attack in this 

 quarter. 



Two of the estufas in the Cliff Palace deviate from the normal type. This is 

 the only instance where I have observed estufas differing in construction from 

 the ordinary form described in Chapter III. The northern estufa (44 in 

 the plan) is the better preserved of the two. To a height of 1 meter from the 

 floor it is square in form (3X3 m.) with rounded corners (see figs. 35 and 

 36). Above it is wider and bounded by the walls of the surrounding rooms, 

 a ledge (b, b) of irregular shape being thus formed a few feet from the floor. 

 In two of the rounded corners on a level with this ledge (a little to the right 

 in fig. 3(J) niches or hollows (rf, d; breadth 48 cm., depth 45 cm.) have been 

 constructed, and between them, at the middle of the south-east wall, a narrow 

 passage (breadth 40 cm.), open at the top. At the bottom of one side of this 

 passage a continuation thereof was found, corresponding probably to the tunnel 

 in estufas of the ordinary type. At the north corner of the room the wall 

 is broken by three small niches (r, r, r) quite close together, each of them 

 occupying a space about equal to that left by the removal of two stones from 

 the wall. The sandstone blocks of which the walls are built are carefully 

 hewn, as in the ordinary cylindrical estufas. Whether the usual hearth, in form 

 of a basin, and the wall beside it, had been constructed here I was unfortu- 

 nately unable to determine, more than half of the room being filled with rub- 

 bish. I give the name of estufas to these square rooms with rounded cor- 

 ners^ built as described above, because they are furnished with the passage 

 characteristic of the round estufas in the cliff-dwellings. Perhaps they mark 

 the transition to the rectangular estufa of the Moki Indians. Besides the estufas 

 there are some other round rooms or towers (21 «, 23. 63), which evidently be- 

 longed to the fortifications of the village. They differ from the estufas in the 

 absence of the characteristic passage and also of the six niches. Furthermore, 

 they often contain several stories, and in every respect but the form resemble 

 the rectangular rooms. The long wall just mentioned, built on a narrow ledge 

 above the other ruins, and visible at the top of Pi. XIII was probably another 

 part of the village fortifications. The ledge is situated so near the roof of the 

 cave that the wall, though quite low, touches the latter, and the only way of 

 advancing behind it is to creep on hands aud knees. 



A comparison between PI. YIII aud PI. XIII shows at once that the inhabit- 

 ants of the Cliff Palace were further advanced in architecture than their more 

 western kinsfolk on the Mesa "N'erde. The stones are carefully dressed and often 

 laid in regular courses; the walls are perpendicular, sometimes leaning slightly 

 inwards at the same angle all round the room — this being part of the design. 

 All the corners form almost perfect right angles, when the surroundings have 

 permitted the builders to observe this rule. This remark also applies to the 

 doorways, the sides of w^hich are true and even. The lintel often consists of 



«A part of this wall may be seen to the extreme right of PI. XIII, and also in fig. o4 

 behind and to the right of the tower. 



44726°— Bull. 51—11 2 



