MINDELEFF] RUIN WITH THREE KIVAS 121 
fact that these expedients were not successful makes them more inter- 
esting. Upright logs were inclosed in the walls and anchored in holes 
drilled in the rock below; horizontal logs were built into the masonry 
as ties and placed below it, and heavy retaining walls were erected. 
These constructive expedients will later be discussed at greater length. 
The whole slope is more or less covered with débris, and there is no 
doubt that this was at one time a considerable settlement. The cliff 
walls near the east end show traces of two stories, and in one place 
of three stories, which formerly rested against them. Moreover, the 
number of successive coats of plaster in the kiva shows an extended 
occupancy, an inference which is further supported by the variety of 
expedients which were adopted to hold the walls in place. 
The marked irregularity of the five eastern rooms as compared with 
the regular series west of them will be noticed on the plan. These 
eastern rooms must have been added at a period subsequent to the 
completion of the others. The marks of asecond an third story occur 
on the cliff back of this cluster, and there is no doubt that it was 
an important part of the settlement. West of the area shown on the 
plan traces of walls occur on the slope and among the debris for a 
distance of over 100 feet. 
Parts of three kivas can now be seen on the ground, and this was 
probably the total number in the settlement. The fronts of all of 
them have fallen out, notwithstanding various expedients that were 
employed to hold them in place. The western wall of the western 
kiva is part of the rectangular system and was apparently in place 
before the kiva was built. A triangular block which formed the 
junction in front of this kiva and the central one has slipped down 
and new walls were afterward built to restore the kivas to their 
original shape. The central kiva has an interior bench, which was, 
however, added after the structure was completed, and in fact after 
the front had been replaced. The second falling off of the front has 
left a fine section of the wall, and the changes which have taken place 
are plainly shown in it. 
That the interior bench was added long after the original kiva had 
been completed and occupied is shown by the occurrence between it 
and the wall of nearly an inch of plaster composed of separate coat- 
ings, each smoke-blackened, varying from the thickness of a piece 
of heavy paper up toan eighth of an inch or more. If one of these 
coatings were added each year, twelve or fifteen years at least must 
have elapsed between the building of the kiva and the construction 
of the interior bench. The original floor of the kiva was composed of a 
layer of mud mortar about an inch thick, and extends through under the 
bench, the top of which is about 3 feet above it. Under this floor 
there is a straight wall at right angles to the cliff and extending some 
4 feet toward the center of the kiva; what is left of it is just under the 
floor level. 
