1923] 



WEST, GRAND CANYON CLIFF DWELLINGS 



79 



none of the mortar, which originally held its walls together, is now to 

 be found and the walls themselves have fallen completely. Interest- 

 ing features of this ruin are the circular rooms at two corners and the 

 larger circle, which is a little detached from the main portion of the 

 building. In some places the walls of this ruin are as much as two 

 feet and a half in height. 



Quantities of potsherds were found about these ruins, they being 

 largely of the black and white, and black and red wares, but with the 

 coil incised decoration predominating over all other varieties. 



At various other points all along the south rim of the Canyon there 

 are cliff ruins, almost always located a short way down the precipitous 

 face of the clifT from the rim. 



Q ' I M n 



SCALE or rEET. 



o 



Fig. 47. — Plan of a pueblo ruin just west of Tanner Tank. 



The question of water was a most vital one here, as everywhere 

 else in this Southwest country and the lack of water along the south 

 rim of the Grand Canyon is largely accountable for the paucity of in- 

 habited points. Water also accounts for most of the present trails 

 down into the Canyon, for these trails are built down the precipitous 

 walls of the Canyon by way of old geological fault lines, and in almost 

 every instance follow old Indian trails, used from time immemorial 

 by the aborigines as a means of access to the springs below the rim, 

 chiefly down on the Tonto Plateau. Among these the most notable 

 are Hermit trail, by which Santa Maria Spring, over 1000 feet below 

 the rim, was reached, and Bright Angel trail by which Indian Gardens 

 was reached. This was an old Indian agricultural site bountifully 

 supplied with excellent water and is now a tourist resting place on the 

 trail, plainly visible from Hotel El Tovar, as a verdent spot 3500 feet 

 below the rim. 



