NO. 2 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I918 



95 



of the prehistoric Pueblos of the San juan drainage and neighboring 

 sections of the sovithwest. Shards ornamented with black geometric 

 designs seem to predominate, but there are also numerous fragments 

 of black-on-red and the customary plain and corrugated ware. Those 

 which are decorated exhibit no marked variations from shards of 

 similar design found u])on ruins in better known localities and tend 

 to substantiate the belief that a definite cultural relationship existed 

 between the prehistoric peoples on either side of the Colorado River. 

 A small group of ruins distinctly dififerent in type from those 

 observed on the Walhalla Plateau was noted near Two-Mile Spring, 



Fig. 107. — Sandstone slab making the walls of a small circular ruin near 

 Two-Mile Spring, House Rock Valley. 



in upper House Rock A'alley. The structures are all circular, or 

 nearly so, and measure from 4 to 10 feet in diameter; their standing- 

 walls are of dressed sandstone slabs, set on end and usually close 

 together. Xo trace of plaster is to be found in any of the rooms and 

 nothing remains of the -masonry which unquestionably surmounted 

 the upright stones. ^\\'here exposed, the floors are covered with 

 burned earth and ashes and mixed with these are chunks of roofing 

 clay still bearing impressions of wallows, grass, etc. All of the struc- 

 tures are circular — no evidence of a former rectangular dwelling 

 was noted in their immediate vicinity. Prehistoric remains similar 

 to these have been observed, also, to the east of the Colorado River, 

 between Grand Gulch and Chinlee \'alley, in the San Juan drainage. 

 As yet their original appearance and use seems to have been incom- 

 pletely determined. 

 7 



