LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. XXV 



Arizona, and secured materials for a number of very interesting models, 

 illustrating the methods of the Pueblos or town-builders in the construc- 

 tion of their dwellings. Two villages have been selected for immediate 

 construction, as showing the most ancient and best known examples of 

 their peculiar architecture, viz: Taos and Acoma; the one of many- 

 storied, terraced houses, and the other built high up on an impregnable 

 rock. The model of Taos is now completed, the dimensions of which 

 are 42 by 39 inches, and the scale one inch to twenty feet, 1 : 240. 

 Of this town Davis says : 



It is the best sample of the ancient mode of buihling. Here are two large houses 

 three or four hundred feet in length, and about one hundred and fifty feet wide at the 

 base. They arc situated upon opposite sides of a small creek, and in ancient times 

 are said to have been couuected with a bridge. They are five and six stories high, 

 each story receding from the one below it, and thus forming a structure terraced from 

 top to bottom. Each story is divided into niunerous little compartments, the outer 

 tier of rooms being lighted by small windows in the sides, while those in the interior 

 of the building are dark, and are ijriucipally used as storerooms. * » » The only 

 means of entrance is thi'ough a trap-door in the roof, and you ascend from story to 

 story by means of ladders on the outside, which are drawn up at night. 



Their contact with Europeans has modified somewhat their ancient 

 style of buildings, principally in substituting doorways in the walls of 

 their houses for those in the roof. Their modern buildings are rarely 

 over two stories in height, and are not distinguishable from those of 

 their Mexican neighbors. The village is surrounded by an adobe wall, 

 which is first included within the limits of the model, and incloses an 

 area of eleveh or twelve acres in extent. Within this limit are four of 

 their estufas, or secret council-houses. These are circular underground 

 apartments, with a narrow opening in the roof, surrounded by a pali- 

 sade, ladders being used to go in and out. 



These models are first carefully built up in clay, in which material all 

 the detail is readily secured, and are then cast in plaster, a mold being 

 secured by which they are readily multiplied to any extent. They are 

 then put in the hands of the artists and carefully colored in solid oil 

 paints to accurately resemble their appearance in nature, and, in the 

 case of restorations or modern buildings, all the little additions are made 

 which will give them the appearance of occupation. The survey is in 

 possession of the data for the construction of many more models, and 

 they will be brought out as opportunity is .given. They have also, in 

 connection with the views, multiplied many of the curious pieces of pot- 

 tery which have been brought back from that region by the various 

 parties connected with the survey. 



These models are now in the possession of several of the leading mu- 

 seums of this country and of Europe, in Washington, Princeton, Cam- 

 bridge, New York, London, Paris, and Berlin, and will serve more fully 

 to illustrate and perpetuate our knowledge of this singular period in our 

 country's history. 



