236 ABORIGINAL REMAINS IX VERDE A'ALLEY. [eth.ans.13 



surface is smoother than iu the northern section and aftbrds a greater 

 contrast with the site itself. Plate XKXiii shows one of these bowlder- 

 marked sites which occurs a little below Limestone creek, on the oppo- 

 site or eastern side of the river. It is typical of many in that district. 

 It will be noticed that the bowlders are but slightly sunk into the soil, 

 and that the surface of the ground has been so slightly disturbed that 

 it is practically level; there is not enough debris on the ground to raise 

 the walls 2 feet. The illustration shows, in the middle distance, a con- 

 siderable area of bottom laud which the site overlooks. In plan this 

 site shows a number of oblong rectangular rooms, the longer axes of 

 which are uot always parallel, the plan resembling very closely the 

 smaller stone village ruins already described. It is probable that the 

 lack of parallelism in the longer axes of the rooms is due to the same 

 cause as in the village ruins, i. e., to the fact that the site was not all 

 built up at one time. 



The illustration represents only a part of an extensive series of wall 

 remains. The series commences at the northern end of a mesa forming 

 the eastern boundary of the Rio Verde and a little below a point oppo- 

 site the mouth of Limestone creek. The ruins occur along the western 

 rim of the mesa, overlooking the river and the bottom lands on the 

 other side, and are now marked only by bowlders and a slight rise in 

 the ground. But few lines of wall are visible, most of the ruins con 

 sisting only of a few bowlders scattered without system. From the 

 northern end of the mesa, where the ruins commence, traces of walls 

 can be seen extending due southward and at an angle of about 10^ 

 with the mesa edge for a distance of one-fourth of a mile. Beyond this, 

 for half a mile or more southward, remains of single houses and small 

 clusters occur, and these are found iu less abundance to the southern 

 edge of the mesa, where the ruin illustrated occurs. The settlement 

 extended some distance east of the part illustrated, and also south- 

 ward on the slope of the hill. Two well-marked lines of wall occur at 

 the foot of the hill, on the flat bottom land, but the slopes of the hill 

 are covered with bowlders and show no well-defined lines. Scattered 

 about on the surface of the ground are some fragments of metates of 

 coarse black basalt and some potsherds, but the latter are not abun- 

 dant. 



The bowlders which now mark these sites were probably obtained in 

 the immediate vicinity of the points where they were used. The mesa 

 on wliich the ruin occurs is a river terrace, constructed jjarfly of these 

 bowlders; they outcrop occasionally on its surface and show clearly 

 in its sloping sides, and the washes that carry off the water falling on 

 its surface ai'e full of them. 



In the northern end of the settlement there are faint traces of what 

 may liave been an irrigating ditch, but the topography is such that 

 water could not be brought on top of the mesa from the river itself. At 

 the southern end of the settlement, northeast of the point shown iu 

 the illustration, there are traces of a structure that may have been a 



