We THE CLIFF RUINS OF CANYON DE CHELLY _ [evTH. ann. 16 
The three kivas which are shown on the plan oecupied the front of the 
village, and their front walls have fallen out. Apparently the same 
accident has happened at least once, if not several times, before, and a 
fragment of a previous front wall has slipped down 3 or 4 feet, and was 
left there when the kiva was repaired. The round dots shown on the 
plan, two in the wall of the central kiva and one on the east, represent 
vertical timbers incorporated in the masonry. The tops of these logs , 
reach the level of the top of the bench in the kiva, and their lower ends 
rest in cavities in the rocks, The easterneone was removed and was 
found to be about 2 feet long. The upper half was charred, although 
formerly inclosed completely in the masonry, as though it had been 
burned off to the required length. The lower end was hacked off with 
some blunt implement, and as nearly squared as it could be done with 
such means. It was set into a socket or hole pecked in the solid rock 

“Of Fl 
f2 “Feez” tf 
HE AY TIMBERS 
Fic. 69—Retaining walls in Canyon de Chelly. 
and plastered in with clay. In the outer portion of the eastern wall of 
the central kiva there are many marks of sticks, 5 to 4 inches in diam- 
eter and placed vertically. 
Although timbers as an aid to masonry occur in many ruins, they 
predominate in those which have been suggested as the sites most 
recently occupied; but in the Chaco ruins timber has been used exten- 
sively and much more skillfully than here. Instances occur where a 
cross wall has been tied into a front wall with timber, and so effective 
was the device that in one instance a considerable section of cross wall 
can be seen suspended in the air, being completely broken out below 
and now supported wholly by the ties. Instances can also be seen 
where partition walls are supported on crossbeams at some distance 
from the ground, forming large and convenient openings between rooms; 
but nothing of that kind was seen in De Chelly. In the latter region 
