MINDELEFF] VILLAGES ON BOTTOM LANDS 95 
can generally be distinguished, and in many instances walls are still 
standing—sometimes toa height of three stories. The ground plans 
reflect more or less the character of the site they occupy, and we 
would be as much surprised to find plans of their character in the open 
country as we are to see plans of class I within the canyon. Unlike 
the ground plans of class 1, those of this group were laid out with direct 
reference to the cliff behind them, and which formed, as it were, a part 
of them. 
In point of size, long period of occupancy, and position these villages 
were the most important in the canyon. The ruins often cover consid- 
erable areas and almost invariably show the remains of one or more 
cireular kivas. Sometimes they are located directly upon the bottom 
land, more often they occupy low swells next the cliff, rising perhaps 10 
feet above the general level and affording a fine view over it. Some- 
times they are found in alcoves at the base of the cliff, but they always 
rest on the bottom land which extends into them; these merge insen- 
sibly into the next class—village ruins on defensible sites—and the dis- 
tinction between them is partly an arbitrary one, as is also that between 
the last mentioned and the cliff ruins proper. 
Figure 1 is a ground plan of a small ruin located in Del Muerto, on 
the bottom lands near its mouth. No standing walls now remain, 

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Fie. 1—Ground plan of an old ruin in Canyon del Muerto. 
but there is no doubt that the village at one time covered much more 
ground than that shown onthe plan. There are now remains of sixteen 
rooms on the ground, in addition to two kivas. There isa shallowaleove 
in the cliff at the ground level, and the overhanging cliff gave the yil- 
lage some protection overhead. Plate xLV shows another example in 
Del Muerto, the largest in that canyon. The walls are still standing 
to a height of three stories in one place, and the masonry is of high 
class. The back cliff has not entered into the plan here to the same 
extent that it generally does. Figure 2, a ground plan, exhibits only 
that portion of the area of the ruin on which walls are still standing. 
It shows about 20 rooms on the ground, exclusive of three or per- 
haps four kivas. The rooms are small as a rule, rectangular, and 
arranged with a more than ordinary degree of regularity. One room 
still carries its roof intact, as shown on the plan. In the center of the 
ruin are the remains of a very large kiva, over 36 feet in diameter. 
It is now so much broken down that but little can be inferred as to its 
former condition, except that there was probably no interior bench, as 
no remains of such a structure can now be distinguished. The size of 
