MINDELEFF] RUINS THREATENED BY FALLING ROCKS 139 
These are shown on the plan by shaded spots. Owing to the soft ground 
underneath, it was easier to excavate a hole and wall it up than to con- 
struct the regular surface cist, and the former plan was followed. 
Although many or the sites are covered with bowlders and blocks of 
stone fallen from above, which often oceur among and even over walls, 
close inspection generally shows that the walls were constructed after 
the rocks fell. There are two instances, however, which are doubtful, 
and in one (shown in figure 40) it appears that large blocks of rock 
have fallen since the walls were constructed. Such falls of rock are 
not uncommon now in the fall and winter months, when frost and 
seepage from the melting snow sometimes split off huge fragments. 

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Fic 389—Ground plan of a ruin in Canyon de Chelly. 
The site mentioned occurs at the point marked 47 on the map. It 
is in a cove under a mass of rock which juts out from the cliff, and is 
about 30 feet above the bottom, on the edge of a slope of loose rock 
which extends some distance above it. At the top of the talus, over 
200 feet above, there is another ruin, which was probably only an out- 
look, as no trace of a kiva can be found, and it is possible that the lower 
site was connected with and formed part of the upper one. The lower site 
contained a circular kiva, only a small portion of which now remains, 
and the ground is covered with blocks of rock which must have fallen 
since the walls were built. They appear to have fallen quite recently. 
It can still be seen that the kiva had an interior bench, and that there 
Was a room, or perhaps rooms, between it and the back of the cove; 
but beyond this nothing can now be made ont. 
