270 



SCIENCK 



[Vol. XX. No. 510 



rock, and are now the abode of thousands of bats, which fly about 

 in great numbers when disturbed by the sight-seeker. 



A few miles above Montezuma's castle, on the opposite bank of 

 the creek, a conspicuous cone-like mountain rises a few hundred 

 feet above the surrounding country. On making the ascent, the 

 summit was found to be a narrow rira enclosing a crater some 

 three hundred feet in diameter and with nearly perpendicular 

 walls. Standing on the rim, one can look down a hundred feet 

 upon the dark-blue water of a small lake in the bosom of the 

 mountain. The lake, a hundred yards in diameter and of un- 

 known depth, is known as Montezuma's well. In the steep sides 

 of the crater are a number of caves, which at one time were the 

 abode of man. A few are natural, but the greater number are 

 the result of human effort. 



The rim is crowned with the fallen walls of an ancient ruin more 

 than a hundred feet long. Far down the mountain-side, below 

 the level of the water in the crater, the outlet of the well flows 

 from between an opening in the rocks. This stream is large and 

 constant, and at present is used to irrigate a ranch in the valley 

 below. Ages ago the builders of caves and castles utilized this 

 same stream to irrigate portions of the neighboring rich valley. 



A short distance down the valley a stone and cement ditch of 

 pre-historic make can be easily traced for many rods. Ranchmen 

 in building ditches frequently follow the courses of ancient ones. 

 In July, last year, in constructing an irrigating ditch near old 





Diagram showing floor-plan of cave. The line AB represents face of clifi ,' 

 C, lateral caves ; E, main cave ; F, rock bench surrounding main cave ; C?, en" 

 trance ; 2>, small cavity hollowed In rock near entrance ; ff, rock of cliff. 



Fort Verde, on the west side of the river, the workmen found 

 evidences of an ancient ditch buried some twelve feet below the 

 surface. Many of the old ditches have been found upon mesas 

 where under present conditions it would be impossible to get 

 water to fill them. Frequently they lead from what are now dry 

 washes which only carry water a few days at a time and then only 

 after heavy rains. This seems to indicate that there was a time 

 when the now dry washes carried vpater much more constantly 

 than at present. 



More numerous than the casa and cliff ruins are the many caves 

 excavated from the sand and limestone cliffs along the east bank 

 of Verde River for some miles below the old fort. At a distance 

 the openings into the caves look like black spots on the white 

 cliffs. They are arranged in long rows, tier above tier, and are 

 nearly alike in structure. All are more or less inaccessible from 

 the valley below. The entrance is an irregular arched opening 

 about four feet high and from half to two-thirds as wide. The 

 cave proper is about twelve feet in diameter and from four to six 

 feet to ceiling. The room is more or less circular in outline. A 

 rock bench from twelve to eighteen inches high occupies the cave 

 on all sides except at the entrance. This bench is about three feet 

 wide, and gently slopes toward the centre of the room. Charred 

 embers, meates, grinders, broken pottery, and fragments of reed 

 mats were scattered about or were under the heaps of debris 

 which covered the floor. Opening into the main cave at either 

 side and also frequently at the rear were smaller ones, which 

 were three to five feet in diameter and about the same to ceiling. 

 In nearly all the caves visited the floors of the smaller ones were 



from one and one-half to two and one-half feet below the floor of 

 the main room. 



It is probable that the small caves were used for the storage of 

 grains and other material. No light finds its way into the small 

 lateral and rear caves but the little that comes in through the 

 small openings leading to the central room. In two or three in- 

 stances I found two large caves joined by a small passage-way 

 uniting the lateral caves. Occasionally, hollowed from the wall, 

 at one or both sides of the main entrance, some two feet above 

 the floor, were small pocket-like cavities about twelve inches in 

 diameter and nearly spherical in outline. The openings to them 

 were four or five inches across, so large that one could easily reach 

 with the hand any object that might be placed therein. Not only 

 the floors of the caves, but in many instances the entire face of 

 the cliffs, were covered with broken pottery, some of it of much 

 better quality than that made by the Indians of Arizona to-day. 



So far as I have had opportunity of examining, the caves of this 

 region are much different from those in the cliffs along the 

 Colorado River and elsewhere in the territory. Here it is evident 

 they have been hollowed out by human effort. In other localities 

 natural caves and large horizontal fissures in the cliffs were the 

 homes of this early people. 



PALEOLITHIC MAN IN NORTH AMERICA. 



BY DR. C. C. ABBOTT. 



The ghost of pateolithic man has arisen to plague the geologists 

 at Washington ; and those that look upon them as little gods are 

 all shouting "Me, too." As the cause of all this mischief, it is 

 fitting that I should speak in my own defence. The scientific men 

 of Washington claim a monopoly of knowledge and so occupy a 

 peculiar position, self-assumed, of course. That which is offered 

 the world independently of them, must be stamped by their ap- 

 proval or condemned, and it is never the former. This condition 

 of affairs really handicaps them at the outset, and not one can 

 enter the field unbiassed. Indeed, they go out instructed to bring 

 in such and such results, and none other. This is pre-eminently 

 so in the question of the antiquity of man in North America. The 

 recent appearance of Wright's book, " Man and the Glacial Period," 

 has set their pens and tongues vs-agging, but palaeolithic man is 

 not to be downeiJ even by such an array of notables marshalled to 

 defeat him. Salisbury's cunning argumentation, McGee's shaggy 

 front, Holmes's imperious "begone!" and Brinton's persuasive 

 smile do not make him afraid. He returned to earth in his own 

 good time and came to stay I 



Of the alleged evidences brought forward by others I have 

 nothing to say, but something to record concerning my own in- 

 vestigations, that may have a bearing on the question. We must 

 admit that, at some given day in the past, man appeared on this 

 continent; but just when, no one has ventured to assert. Cer- 

 tainly in no one communication to scientific or popular literature 

 ha^e I done more than claim the discovery of evidence of his 

 comparatively primitive condition when he did arrive ; and now 

 after twenty years of careful, unremitted study of the valley of 

 the Delaware River, I see no reason to change my opinion, but a 

 great deal to substantiate it. 



Were the evidences of man's occupancy of this region one asso- 

 ciated and confused mass, an attempt made to dissociate its com- 

 ponents into rude and more elaborate forms and to say of the 

 former, this is old, and of the latter, not so ancient, then the sci- 

 entific world might well be up in arms and cry down the apparent 

 absurdity — but this is not the case. 



Of course, if we claim, as, for instance, Mr. Holmes practically 

 does, in spite of denial, that every so-called palaeolithic imple- 

 ment is a " reject," whether the man who threw it aside lived in 

 Europe or America, the whole subject falls to the ground ; but 

 accepting palEeolithic man as a one-time featirre of other conti- 

 nents, and believing no geological reasons have been brought 

 forward why he might not have lived in North America also, it is 

 justifiable to consider the archaeological significance of such ob- 

 jects as the late Wyman said were not distinguishable from Euro- 

 pean forms, except by the material of which they were made. 



