BTKVEsso.N.l INTRODUCTION. 431' 



infc about 12 miles below, or south of Santa Clara, and extending south to 

 within ten miles of Cochiti. a distance of about 65 miles, is an extensive 

 area, the intermediate elevated portion of which is composed of a yellow- 

 ish volcanic tufa, of coarse texture and sufficiently soft and yielding to 

 be rendily worked or carved with rude stone implements. Over this en- 

 tire area there are irregular elevations, somewhat circular in outline, 

 from 50 to i-'Ot) feet in height, the faces of which have been worn away 

 by the elements, and are in nearly all instances perpendicular. These 

 consecutive elevations extend back from the Rio Grande from five to 

 fifteen miles. Over this whole expanse of country, in the faces of these 

 cliffs, we found an immense number of cavate dwellings, cut out by the 

 hand of man. We mnde no attem])t to count the number of these cu- 

 rious dwellings, dug like hermit cells out of the rock, but they may be 

 estimated with safety among the thousands. I made many inquiries 

 of the neighboring tribes in regard to the history of these dwellings, 

 but could elicit no information from any of them. The response was 

 invariably, "they are very old and the people who occupied them are 

 gone." 



An inspection of a portion of this area revealed a condition of things 

 which 1 have no doubt prevails throughout. The dwellings were found 

 in the faces of the clifl's, about liO feet apart in many instances, but the 

 distances are irregular. A careful examination satisfied me that they 

 were excavated with rude stone implements resembling adzes, numbers 

 of which were found here, and which were probably used by fastening 

 one end to a handle. 



The doorways, which are square, were first cut into the face of the 

 wall to a depth of about one foot, and then the work of enlarging the 

 room began. The interiors of the rooms are oval in shape, about 12 feet 

 in diameter, and only of sufficient height to enable one to stand upright. 



The process, from the evidences shown inside, of carving out the in- 

 terior of the dwelling was by scraping grooves several inches deep and 

 apart, and breaking out the intermediate portion; in this way the work 

 progressed until the room reached the desired size. Inside of these 

 rooms were found many little niches and excavated recesses used for 

 storing household ornaments, the larger ones probably supplying the 

 place of cupboards. Near the roofs of many of the caves are mortises, 

 projecting from which, in many instances, were found the decayed ends 

 of wooden beams or sleepers, which were probably used, as they are 

 now in the modern Pueblo dwellings, as poles over which to hang blank- 

 ets and clothing, or to dry meat. These dwellings were without fire- 

 places ; but the evidences of fire were plainly visible at the side of each 

 cave, and in none of those visited did we find any orifice for the egress 

 of the smoke but the small doorway. On the outside or in front of tliese 

 singular habitations are rows of holes mortised into the face of the cliffs 

 about the doors. It is quite evident that these were for the insertion 

 of beams of wood (for forming booths or shelters in the front), as ends of 



