60 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull, to 



This tower (pi. 30, a) is almost perfectly round, about 10 feet in 

 diameter, and stands at least feet high. The south wall has fallen. 

 In the pile of rocks on that side may be readily seen the top of a 

 straight wall reaching to the edge of the cliff as if for protection, but 

 no other fallen walls may now be seen in the neighborhood. The 

 face of the cliff below this tower (pis. 7, h; 31, h) is almost perpen- 

 dicular, the component strata of soft shale alternating with harder 

 rocks, the former well fitted for artificial excavations. 



The author was not impressed with the idea that any considerable 

 number of troglodytic inhabitants dwelt in the small cliff rooms 

 (pi. 31, b) 1 dug in it. Farther on there are other caves the walls of 

 the entrance to which are still in sight. It is true the surface of the 

 cliff may have been eroded and fallen in the time since they were 

 abandoned. They appeared to be storage cists rather than inhabited 

 rooms. 



Along the valley by the side of the road down the Mancos from the 

 bridge to the ruins many heaps of stone were noticed in the valley 

 but none of these were extensive or had walls standing above ground. 

 Nor were they arranged in clusters as is common in the Montezuma 

 Valley. On top of these heaps were found large fragments of slag 

 in which was embedded charred corn, indicating a great fire. Similar 

 slag also with burnt corn has often been found by the author on the 

 floor of excavated rooms. 



Megalithic and Slab House Ruins at McElmo Bluff 



The ruined walls on the bluff situated at the junction of the McElmo 

 and Yellow Jacket Canyons are areheologically instructive. As the 

 mesa between the two canyons narrows in a promontory, about 100 

 feet in altitude, its configuration reminds one of the East Mesa 

 of the Hopi. It is inaccessible on three sides, but on the fourth, 

 where the width of the mesa is contracted, there are remains of a 

 low zigzag wall, extending from one side to the other. At the western 

 base of this promontory, on the ledge higher than the river, there are 

 artificial walls built on bowlders in the sides of which shallow caves 

 are eroded and near by them circular depressions. There are likewise 

 remains of a small pueblo with walls much broken down and across 

 the river the ruins of a community house, one of the largest in the 

 district. The exceptional character of the ruins on top of this 

 promontory has been mentioned or described by several visitors, 

 as Holmes, Jackson, and Morley and Kidder, and various conjectures 

 have been made as to their character and relation to the other ruins 

 in this neighborhood. 



1 A good figure of these cavate rooms is given by Holmes, op. cit. Comparing the photograph with Ins 

 figure it appears that their surrounding shale has worn away somewhat in the last four decades. 



