FEWKES] FEATURES OF THE RED-ROCK COUNTRY 549 
the left, taking an obscure road across the river bed, which is full of 
rough lava blocks, and in June, when I traveled its course, was without 
water, he soon finds himself penetrating a rugged country with bright- 
red cliffs on his right (plate xCvut). Continuing through great parks 
and plains he finally descends to the well-wooded valley of Oak creek, 
an affluent of Rio Verde. Here he finds evidences of aboriginal occu- 
pancy on all sides—ruins of buildings, fortified hilltops, pictographs, and 
irrigating ditches—testifying that there was at one time a considerable 
population in this valley. The fields of the ancient inhabitants have now 
given place to many excellent ranches, one of the most flourishing of 
which is not far from a lofty butte of red rock called the Court. house, 
which from its great size is a conspicuous object for miles around. In 
many of these canyons there are evidences of a former population, but 
the country is as yet almost unexplored; there are many difficult places 
to pass, yet once near the base of the rocks a way can be picked from 
the mouth of one canyon to another. It does not take long to discover 
that this now uninhabited region contains, like that along the Verde 
and its tributaries, many ancient dwellings, for there is scarcely a 
single canyon leading into these red cliffs in which evidences of for- 
mer human habitations are not found in the form of ruins. There is 
little doubt that these unfrequented canyons have many and extensive 
cliff houses, the existence of which bas thus far escaped the explorer. 
The sandstone of which they are composed is much eroded into caves 
with overhanging roofs, forming admirable sites for cliff houses as dis- 
tinguished from cavate dwellings like those we have described. They 
are the only described ruins of a type hitherto thought to be unrepre- 
sented in the valley of the Verde. 
In our excursion iuto the Red-rock country we were obliged to make 
our OWN wagon road, as no vehicle had ever penetrated the rugged 
canyons visited by us. It was necessary to carry our drinking water 
with us from Oak creek, which fact impeded our progress and limited 
the time available in our reconnoissance. There was, however, in the 
pool near the ruins of Honanki enough water for our horses, and at the 
time we were there a limited amount of grass for fodder was found. T[ 
was told that later in the season both forage and water are abundant, 
so that these prime necessities being met, there is no reason why sue- 
cessful archeological investigations may not be successfully conducted 
_in this part of the Verde region. 
The limited population of this portion of the country rendered it dif. 
ficult to get laborers at the time I made my reconnoissance, so that it 
would be advisable for one who expects to excavate the ruins in this 
region to take with him workmen from the settled portions of the 
valley. 
1The cliff houses of Bloody Basin I have not examined, but I suspect they are of the same type as 
the so-called Montezuma Casile, or Casa Montezuma, on the right bank of Beaver creek. The latter 
is referred to the cliff-house class, but it differs considerably from the ruins of the Red-rocks, on 
account of the eharacter of the cavern in which it is built (see figure 246). 
