11) THE CLIFF RUINS OF CANYON DE CHELLY _ [ev#. yy. 16 
canyon, many of which may properly be termed cliff ruins. The char- 
acteristics of the class are: A site more or less difficult of access— 
generally an elaborate ground plan, although sometimes they consist of 
only a few rooms—and the invariable presence of the kiva or estufa, 
here always circular in form. The largest ruin of this class occurs in 
Del Muerto, and is known as Mummy Cave ruin. It is called by the 
Navaho Tse-i-ya-kin. It is situated in the upper part of the canyon, 
near the junction of a small branch, and has an extensive outlook. 
At a height of about 80 feet above the top of a gentle slope of earth 
and loose rock, and perhaps 300 feet above the stream bed, there are 
two coves in the rock, connected by a narrow bench. The western 
cove is about 100 feet across and its back is perhaps 75 feet from the 
front wall of the cliff. The eastern cove is over 200 feet across and 
perhaps 100 feet deep, while the connecting ledge is about 110 feet 
long. Ruins occur on the central ledge and on similar ledges in the 
back parts of both coves. 
The western or smaller cove is accessible only from the ledge, which 
in turn can be approached only from the eastern cove. The smaller 
cove had a row of little rooms across the back and there are traces of 
walls on the slope in front of these. Fourteen rooms can now be made 
out on the ground; altogether there may have been 20 rooms in this 
portion. Practically all the available space on the ledge was occupied 
by rooms, and 10, all of considerable size, can now be traced. The total 
number in this portion was 14 or 15. The eastern cove contained the 
largest part of the settlement. The back part is occupied by a ledge 
about 50 feet wide entirely covered by remains of walls. Some 44 
rooms can now be made out on the ground, in addition to 3 or perhaps 
4 circular kivas, and the whole number of rooms may have been 50, 
Assuming, then, that the various portions of the ruin were inhabited at 
the same time, we would have a total of 90 rooms; but, as many of them 
could be used only for storage, the population could not have been 
more than 60 persons. . 
The rooms in the western cove are fairly uniform in size and were 
probably habitations, for they are all too large to be classed as storage 
rooms. There was no kiva in this portion, however, nor any unoceupied 
place where a kiva might have been placed. It seems clear, therefore, 
that this portion was either an appendage of the other or was occupied 
ata later period; in either case it was constructed at a date subsequent: 
to the remains in the eastern cove. 
The intermediate ledge, which is about 110 feet long and about 30 
feet wide, was practically all occupied by a row of seven rooms, some 
of them of more than one story. These rooms are exceptionally 
large—larger than any group of rooms in the canyon or in this part of 
the country. The outside or front wall is more than 20 feet from tie 
cliff back of it, and the rooms are from 10 to 15 feet wide. Figure 16, 
which is a ground plan of the ruin, shows the exceptional size of 
