ik IDDER-GUERNSEY | ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN ARIZONA DD 
blocks, they had at least one story of good masonry. This group of 
rooms we believe to have been built by the Kayenta people at the 
same general period as Olla House. The few fragments of pottery 
found at this spot were of the Kayenta styles. 
A little trenching in likely spots failed to disclose any burials. A 
much larger force of men than ours would be necessary for a proper 
exploration of the bench and the hill, as the ruins cover a great deal 
of ground and at some places are buried deep under sand dunes. Our 
work hereabouts was accordingly brought to a close, and we returned 
to Kayenta. 
Marsn Pass 
The remaining weeks of our field season were spent in a preliminary 
survey of the Marsh Pass district (see pl. 1). Marsh Pass proper 
is a narrow defile between the great Black Mesa (Zilh-le-jini of the 
maps) and the high, broken sandstone country to the west. A good 
road, recently constructed by the Indian Bureau, leads from Kayenta 
through the pass and on via Cow Springs or Vakishibito to Tuba 
City. Leaving Kayenta, one follows this road up the broad valley of 
Laguna Creek, with the high, dark cliffs of the Black Mesa on the 
left. After 8 or 9 miles the valley narrows, as the slopes of Skeleton 
Mesa close in from the north and west. A mile or more and one 
reaches Marsh Pass itself, a narrow, rough defile, bordered on each 
side by high cliffs; on the right is the mouth of Sagi Canyon, a ma- 
jestic red gorge with precipitous walls. Another mile and one is 
clear of the pass and in a most beautiful long, grassy valley, half a 
mile to a mile wide, walled in uncompromisingly on the south by 
the Black Mesa and bounded on the north by sloping ledges of red 
sandstone (see pl. 21, 6). The scant drainage from this defile runs 
down through the pass, where it is joined by a more constant flow 
from the Sagi system, the two forming Laguna Creek and ultimately 
emptying into the Chinlee. 
Although there is no flow of water in these upper reaches of Marsh 
Pass comparable with that in Sagi Canyon, there is a plentiful rain- 
fall at certain seasons of the year; every storm that crosses this 
part of the plateau seems to swing along the face of the Black Mesa 
and deliver part of its rain upon the valley. The vegetation, while 
still strictly of the dry-country type, is more luxuriant and varied 
than about Kayenta and in the “ Monuments;” particularly is this 
true of the little side canyons that lead up into the red sandstone on 
the northern side, where hollows and pockets in the rock hold sup- 
plies of stored rain water so large that they probably last through 
the dry seasons of all but exceptionally dry years. 
The valley is a level plane covered with bee plant, grass, sage, and 
greasewood. Its southeastern wall, as stated above, is formed by the 
