MorRIS] RUINS ON THE MESAS 189 
by the top of the butte was used as a shrine or lookout station, or 
both. Shrines occur in similar locations in other parts of the 
Southwest. The excavation of the pit would be an interesting and 
doubtless an instructive undertaking, but our party did not attempt 
it, as the site was not found until the close of the field season of 1914. 
Ruin No. 15—In the dense timber just west of the butte there is 
a ruin of fair size which from surface indications is one of the most 
promising in the entire region. 
From the foot of the butte a plateau runs due west for a number 
of miles. This constitutes the watershed between Grass Canyon, a 
fork of Mancos Canyon, on the north, and Salt Canyon, a tributary 
of the San Juan, on the south. Almost without exception every 
elevation upon its rolling surface is the site of a ruin; many of these 
ruins are small and much eroded. In many places the black earth 
of the refuse mounds has been completely carried away by the 
freshets caused by the occasional torrential rains, and fragments 
of the pottery which they contained are now scattered in great pro- 
fusion over the red mother soil. 
At the eastern end of one small ruin, which showed six or seven 
slab-outlined chambers angling along a ridge, we noticed many 
fragments, evidently derived from the same vessel, littering a space 
5 feet across. After these were collected a brief search sufficed to 
reveal the remainder of the jar beneath the few inches of black 
earth which covered the floor of the room in which it sat. The 
restored vessel is shown in plate 67, f. 
As the summer of 1913 was practically rainless, excavations on the 
plateau could not be undertaken, since the cost of hauling water 
from Mancos Spring would have been prohibitive. However, the 
summer months of 1914 were as damp as those of the preceding year 
had been arid, and in consequence the glades were bright with moun- 
tain bluestem, which furnished ample feed for our stock. About 5 
miles west of the butte we found pools of water in the sandstone 
bed of one of the forks of Salt Canyon and pitched our tent on the 
ridge at the head of the draw. Later we found that our camp was 
about midway between two rather large ruins. 
Ruin No. 16—Southeast of the one west of camp there was a 
large area which bore the superficial appearance of a burial mound. 
This was dug over, but only two skeletons were found. A descrip- 
tion of one of the graves will serve for both. An oval pit had been 
dug down 2 feet into the red clay. In this the body lay upon its 
back with the head toward the west (pl. 61, 6). The heels were 
drawn up against the buttocks, and the knees were bent to the right 
against the wall of the grave. The right arm was extended with the 
hand beneath the thighs, while the left was crossed over the ab- 
domen. The pit was filled with mortar. The only object found in 
