Cope.] ' '^^^ [June IS, 1875. 



of them. But it is not necessary to suppose tbat tlie ruin of this popula- 

 tion occurred at a very remote past. On the Rio Chaco, not more than 

 thirty miles from the Alto dos Utahs, are the ruins of the seven cities of 

 Cibolla, the largest of which is called Hungo Pavie. These have been 

 described by General Simpson,* vrho shows that each of the towns con- 

 sisted of a huge communal house, which could have accommodated from 

 1500 to 3000 persons. Their character appears to have been similar to 

 that of the existing Moqui villages. The "cities of Cibolla" were 

 visited by the marauding expedition of Coronado, in 1540, which captured 

 them to add to the vice-royalty of Mexico. In his letter to Mendoza, the 

 viceroy, Coronado, states that the inhabitants on the fourth day after the 

 capture "set in order all their goods and substance, their women and 

 children, and fled to the hills, leaving their town as it were abandoned, 

 wherein remained very few of them." There can be no doubt that the 

 Eocene plateau and hog-backs of the Gallinas offer hills of the greatest 

 elevation in the entire region, and it is highly probable if the account 

 quoted be correct, that some at least of the exiled Cibollians found a 

 refuge in this region, and may have been the builders of Cristone. This 

 would place the age of the ruins described, at three hundred and thirty- 

 five years. Of course, it is possible that they represent villages con- 

 temporary with and tributary to the seven cities. 



The inhabitants of the rock -houses of the Gallinas, necessarily 

 abandoned the communal type of building generally employed by their 

 race, and appear only to have considered the capacities of their dwellings 

 for defense. Yet the perils of life in Cristone, due to the location alone, 

 must have been considerable. Infant spoi-ts must have been restricted to 

 within doors, and cool heads were requisite in adults to avoid the fatal 

 consequences of a slip or fall. Intoxication must have been rare in 

 Cristone. There is no trace of metal in any of the ruins of the Gallinas, 

 and it is evident that the inhabitants were acquainted with the use of 

 stone implements only, as was the case with the builders of Central 

 America. I have already alluded to their pottery. It is usually of a 

 bluish-ash color, but is occasionally black, brown, and more rarely red. 

 It is never glazed, but the more common kind is nicely smoothed so as to 

 reflect a little light. This pottery is ornamented with figures in black paint, 

 which are in lines decussating or at right angles, or enclosing triangular 

 or square spaces ; sometimes colored and uncolored angular areas form a 

 checker-board pattern. The coarser kinds exhibit sculpture of the clay 

 instead of painting. The surface is thrown into lines of alternating pro- 

 jections and pits, by the .use of an obtuse stick, or the finger nail ; or it 

 is thrown into imbricating layers by cutting obliquely with a sharp flint 

 knife. Thus the patterns of the ornamentation were varied according to the 

 taste of the manufacturer, although the facilities at their disposal were few. 



With these observations, I close this sketch of a glimpse at one 

 locality of the earliest civilization known on the American continent. 



* Report of St. Jas. H. Simpson, of an expedition in tlie Navajoe Country in 1849. Ex. 

 Doc. 1st Sess. 31st Congress. 



