540 EXPEDITION TO ARIZONA IN 1895 [ETH. ANN. 17 
were the mouths of the caves walled or a doorway of usual shape 
present. The last room at the southern end, near the promontory at 
the right of the entrance to a side canyon, has walls in front resembling 
those of true cliff houses and pueblos in the Red-rock country farther 
northward, as will be shown in subsequent pages. 
This group of cavate dwellings, while a good example of the cavern 
type of ruins, is so closely associated, both in geographical position and 
in archeological remains, with other types in Verde valley, that we are 
justified in referring them to one and the same people. The number of 
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DOOFR 
Fic, 245—Plan of cavate dwelling on Rio Verde 
these troglodytic dwelling places on the Verde is very large; indeed the 
mesas may be said to be fairly honeycombed with subterranean habi. 
tations. Confined as a general thing to the softer strata of rock, which 
from its character was readily excavated, they lie side by side at the 
same general level, and are entered from a projecting ledge, formed by 
the top of the talus which follows the level of their entrances. 
This ledge is easily accessible in certain places from the river bed, 
where stones have fallen to the base of the cliff; but at most points no 
approach is possible, and in their impregnable position the inhabitants 
could easily defend themselves from hostile peoples. 
