MORGAN. RUINS OF ADOBE HOUSES. 189 
McEImo Canon. It stretches southward thirty-six miles to the San Juan. 
In this valley, which has no flowing stream through it at present (and there 
is no certainty that it ever had), and which is without water, except in springs 
and pools, and has but a slight rainfall during the year, Mr Mitchell was 
successfully cultivating, at the time of our visit, wheat, oats, maize, and 
the garden vegetables. The valley is uninhabited, except by the family of 
Mr. Mitchell, and a solitary man living four miles westward. Their nearest 
neighbors are on the Man- | GMitcH=its RANCH 
cos River, twenty-five 
miles distant. The bluffs |rouno tow 
bordering the eastern side 
of the valley rise boldly 
about fifteen hundred feet, 
with table lands above, 
while on the west the 
valley is bordered with 
: Mo ELMO CANON 
mountaims. About ten Fig. 44.—Pueblos at commencement of McElmo Canton. 
miles southwest of Mr. Mitchell’s ranch the Ute Mountain rises out of the 
plain, and from this point appears as a solitary and detached mountain. 
The McEImo Canon passes along its north and westerly sides, while the 
main valley passes southward along its eastern base. This high and noble 
mountain is situated in the southwest corner of Colorado, near the inter- 
section of the boundary lines of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. 
It is a conspicuous object from the La Plata Valley. The Montezuma 
Valley possesses features of remarkable natural beauty. 
Near Mr. Mitchell’s ranch, and within a space of less than a mile 
square, are the ruins of nine pueblo houses of moderate size. ‘They are 
built of sandstone intermixed with cobblestone and adobe mortar. They 
are now in a very ruimous condition, without standing walls in any part of 
them above the rubbish. The largest of the number is marked No. 1 in 
the plan Fig. 44, of which the outline of the original structure is still dis- 
cernible It is ninety-four feet in length and forty-seven feet in depth, and 
shows the remains of a stone wall in front inclosing a small court about 
fifteen feet wide. The mass of material over some parts of this structure 
