1923] 



WEST, GRAND CANYON CLIFF DWELLINGS 



93 



not determinable, but unquestionably, this living water was the pri- 

 mary cause leading aboriginal man to build his habitations in this 

 immediate vicinity. 



Several of these were found, notably a small rock shelter, located 

 about half a mile east of Cliff Spring and about three-quarters of a 

 mile north of Cape Royal. This small, two-room, rock shelter, is 

 located near the top of the saddle of the ridge on which Cape Royal 

 is situated. 



Here a large limestone rock has weathered out to an average height 

 of about six feet, being supported on its southern or downhill side by 

 a firm block of limestone and thus forming an excellent roof for such a 

 rock shelter. 



Fig. 61. — Plan of a two-room rock shelter at Cape Royal. 



As shown in figure 61, this rock shelter comprises two rooms, sep- 

 arated by a well-built wall about a foot in thickness and composed of 

 limestone slabs laid up in mud mortar. At the outer end of room 1, 

 there are slight traces of the mortar of a former wall which at least 

 partly closed up this broad entrance, but time has completely obliter- 

 ated the wall. In fact, the slope of the hill side, is such that a large 

 amount of silt and debris has been washed into this room and when 

 discovered, this layer was a foot and a half in thickness and com- 

 pletely covered the original floor of this room. Figure 62 shows this 

 room before it was excavated. To a large extent debris had accumu- 

 lated in room 2, though here, the pack rats had added very materially 

 to this accumulation, even more so than in room 1. 



With the relatively small rainfall and the resulting slowness of 



