218 



ABORIGINAL REMAINS IN VERDE VALLEY. 



[ETH. AXN. 13 



river is formed bj' an inaccessible bhiif 180 or 200 feet higli. These 

 bluffs are washed by the Verde during high water, though there is 

 evidence that up to a recent time there was a considerable area of 

 bottom land between the river and the foot of the blufi'. Plate xxiv 

 shows the northern end of the group from a low mesa on the opposite 

 side of the river; the eastern bank of the river can be seen in the fore- 

 ground, while the sandy area extending to the foot of the bluft' is the 

 present high-water channel of the Verde. The map (plate xxv) shows 

 the distribution of the cavate lodges composing the group, and plate 

 XXVI shows the character of the site. The cavate lodges occur on two 

 distinct levels — the first, which comprises nearly all the cavate lodges, 

 is at the top of the slopes of talus and about 75 feet above the river; the 

 second is set back from 80 to 150 feet from the first tier horizontallv and 



Top or Talus. 



Fig. 28!t.— I>in;;rain showing strata of canyon wall. 



30 or 40 feet above it. The cavate lodges occur only in the face of the 

 bluft' along the river and in the lower parts of the two little canyons 

 before mentioned. These canyons run back into the mesa seen in the 

 illustration, which in turn forms part of the foothills rising into the 

 range of mountains hemming in the Eio Verde on the east. 



The walls of the canyon in the cavate-lodge area are composed of 

 three distinct strata, clearly defined and well marked. The relations 

 of the strata, at points on the northern and western sides of the north 

 canyon, are shown in figure 289 and plate xxvi. The lowest stratum 

 shown in the figure is that in which almost all the cavate lodges occur. 

 It is about 8 feet tliick and composed of a soft, very friable, purple gray 

 sandstone. Above it lies a greeiiish-white bed a few inches thick, fol- 

 lowed by a stratum of a pronounced white, about 12 feet thick. This 

 heavy stratum is composed of calcareous clay, and the green bed of a 

 calcareous clay with a mixture of sand. The white stratum is divided 

 at two-thirds its height by a thin belt of greenish-white rock, and above 



