Morris] RUINS ON THE MESAS 191 
tities of plaster, many charred poles, and occasional corner posts 
left no doubt that the building, was originally at least five tiers of 
rooms in width, it was impossible to trace the boundaries of any of 
these south of the second row. 
The asymmetry of the building was very marked. Seldom did the 
corners form right angles, and no two walls appeared to be in line. 
Jogs and offsets were the rule rather than the exception. These con- 
ditions suggest that the structure must have grown by gradual 
accretion. 
The floors of 26 of the 31 rooms were covered with 2 to 15 inches 
of charred corn. Some of it had been shelled, but the greater por- 
tion was on the cob. At a conservative estimate there was 100 
bushels, which would indicate at least three times that amount before 
it was subjected to the action of fire. In some places the heat gen- 
erated by the burning corn and wall beams was so great that stones 
and mud were fused into lavalike masses, bearing the impressions of 
the consumed ears, of the sort the presence of which has given rise 
to the erroneous statement that ruins have been found containing evi- 
dences of volcanic activity. 
With few exceptions there were pottery vessels in each room. Six 
were recovered unbroken and 26 more were restored from fragments. 
Plate 60 shows some of these in place. Stone axes, rubbing stones, 
dressed slabs, and two metates were also taken from the débris, but 
not one bone implement was found. 
The facts seem to justify the following conclusions: The building 
was an approximately rectangular aggregation of rooms which num- 
bered in the neighborhood of 100. The sides of the pits which 
formed the lower parts of many of them were lined with stone slabs, 
or with plaster daubed upon the original earth (pl. 59). The walls 
above ground were constructed of poles heavily coated with mud. 
The roofs were supported by heavy corner posts. 
Nothing was discoverable which would indicate the nature of the 
doors and windows. There is no evidence that the structure was 
more than one story in height, and in fact such evidence as there is 
points to the contrary, for the thin walls and the proportions of the 
corner posts offer no suggestion of the strength which would have 
been necessary to support a second story. 
Fire destroyed the building and its contents. To judge from the 
large quantities of corn and the many vessels sitting about in the 
rooms, the conflagration must have been sudden and catastrophic. 
Whether it started from wind-fanned sparks or was caused by light- 
ning or by enemies is purely a matter of conjecture. 
There are other ruins in the vicinity, but no further excavations 
were attempted. 
