18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 51 



a large stone slab, extending right across the opening. On closer observation 

 we find that in the Cliff Palace we may discriminate two slightly different 

 methods of building. The lower walls, where the stones are only rough-hewn 

 and laid without order, are often surmounted by walls of carefully dressed 

 blocks in regular courses. This circumstance suggests that the cave was 

 inhabited during two different periods. I shall have occasion below to return 

 to this question. 



The rooms of the Cliff Palace seem to have been better provided with light 

 and air than the clift'-dwellings in general, small peep-holes appearing at 

 several places in the walls. The doorways, as in other cliff-dwellings, are 

 either rectangular or T-shaped. Some of the latter are of unusual size, in 

 one instance 1.05 m. high and 0.81 m. broad at the top. The thickness of the 

 walls is generally about 0.3 m., sometimes, in the outer walls, as much as 0.6 m. 

 As a rule they are not painted, but in some rooms covered with a thin coat of 

 yellow plaster. At the south end of the ruin lies an estufa (93) which is 

 well-preserved (fig. 37). This estufa is entered by a doorway in the wall, 

 one of the few instances where I have observed this arrangement. In most 

 cases, as I have already mentioned, the entrance was probably constructed in 

 the roof. The dimensions of this estufa were as follows : diameter 3.9 m.. 

 distance from the floor to the bottom of the niches 1.2 m., height of the niches 

 0.9 m., breadth of the same 1.3 m., depth of the same 0..5 to 1.3 m., height of 

 the passage at its mouth 0.75 m., breadth of the same 0.45 m. Five small 

 quadrangular holes or niches were scattered here and there in the lower part 

 of the wall. 



I cannot refrain from once more laying stress on the skill to which the walls 

 of Cliff Palace in general bear witness, and the stability and strength which has 

 been supplied to them by the careful dressing of the blocks and the chinkhig 

 of the interstices with small chips of stone. A point remarked by Jackson in 

 his description of the ruins of Southwestern Colorado, is that the finger mai-ks 

 of the mason may still be traced in the mortar, and that those marks are so 

 small as to suggest that the work of building was performed by women. This 

 conclusion seems too hasty, for within the range of my observations the size of 

 the finger marks varies not a little. 



Like Sprucetree House and other large ruins the Cliff Palace contains at 

 the back of the cave extensive open spaces where tame turkeys were probably 

 kept. In this part of the village three small rooms, isolated from the rest of 

 the building, occupy a position cloi-e to the cliff"; two of them (103, 104), built 

 of large flat slabs of stones, lie close together, the third (105), of unhewn 

 sandstone (fig. 38), is situated farther north. These rooms may serve as 

 examples of the most primitive form of architecture among the cliff" people. 



In the Cliff" Palace, the rooms lie on dift"erent levels, the ground occupied by 

 them being very rough. In several places terraces have been constructed in 

 order to procure a level foundation, and here as in their other architectural 

 labours, the cliff-dwellers have displayed considerable skill. 



One very remarkable circumstance in the Cliff Palace is that all the pieces of 

 timber, all the large rafters, have disappeared. The holes where they passed 

 into the walls may still be seen, but throughout the great block of ruins two 

 or three large be:ims are all that remain. This is the reason why none of the 

 rooms is completely closed. At Sprucetree House there were a number of 

 rooms where the placing of the door stone in position was enough to throw the 

 room into perfect darkness, no little aid to the execution of photographic work. 

 It is difficult to explain the above state of things. I observed the same want of 

 timber in parts of other ruins (at Long House for example). In several of 

 the cliff-dwellings it appears as if the beams had purposely been removed from 



