KIDDER-GUERNSEY] ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN ARIZONA yo 
At the Cornfields we crossed Laguna Creek on the rocks above a 
rapid and followed down the western side. Camp was made 3 or 4 
miles below at a place where Laguna Creek drops over a series of 
ledges, making, when the water is.high, an impressive waterfall. 
About a spring in a deep gully near the falls there is an extensive 
bed of cat-tail rushes. This was the only place where we found cat- 
tails growing, although mats made from their leaves were met with 
in every ruin. Above the spring and commanding the. falls there is 
a 40-foot sandstone bluff overhanging a narrow flat bench with a 
full southern exposure. Here are potsherds scattered in quantities, 
the bowlders are scored with tool-grinding grooves, and on every 
smooth surface along the cliff are pictographs of mountain sheep, 
lizards, and human figures.1_ No house walls were noticed. 
From the camp at the falls to the Chinlee is 8 or 9 miles, over flat 
mesa, with a final drop down steep ledges to the valley itself. The 
Chinlee at this point runs through a canyon varying in width from 
a few hundred yards to three-quarters of a mile, bordered by hum- 
mocky, domed, red cliffs and pleasantly shaded with large cotton- 
wood trees. Near a small waterfall there is an unimportant cliff- 
house with several pictographs along the rocks near it.? ) 
Nockito (Navaho, “ Mexican water”) trading post, 4 or 5 miles 
below our crossing, 15 situated in a deep side canyon which enters 
the Chinlee from the eastern side. Two miles below the post, in 
the main valley, there is a bay in the eastern cliffs forming an amphi- 
theater-shaped “ flat” between the rocks and the river, about three- 
quarters of a mile long and one-third of a mile wide. At its northern 
end are the remains of what was once a very large cliff-village. 
Ruin 9 
The ruins are in a shallow cave set well above the valley bottom, 
but easily reached from it up a sandy incline. Conditions had not 
been favorable for the preservation of this ruin from decay, as the 
overhang of the cliffs is so high that a southerly wind could drive 
rain or snow clear to the back of the cave; besides this there is a 
seepage of water from a horizontal fault along the whole length of 
the house bench, which concentrates in fine bubbling springs at 
either end of the ruin. The elements and this spring water have 
together brought about a very complete state of collapse. Few walls 
stand clear of the rubbish, and the rooms at the front of the cave 
are almost entirely buried under débris. In spite of these conditions 
it is obvious that Waterfall Ruin was once a very extensive struc- 
ture, and one which, moreover, was inhabited for a long time. This 
* See pls. 89) ¢; 90, ¢, 9, j, Un, 0, p> 91, 7; and fig, 102, c. 
2See pls. 89, e; 90, a; 91, j. 
