B12 Wisconsin,' Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



compactly built, many of the streets passing under the upper 

 stories of houses. The whole is divided into four squares and the 

 houses in each are continuously joined together. Building ma- 

 terial is stone, plastered with mud. Near this, two miles to the 

 southeast, situated on an elevated mesa a mile in width, the pre- 

 cipitous descent from which measures 1,000 feet, are the ruins of 

 old Zuni. 



Beneath the walls of this antiquated ruin, others of a more an- 

 cient city are found, whose walls are six feet thick, the city hav- 

 ing perished before the present was begun. It appears then that 

 one type of building prevailed through many ages, the same kind 

 of structure having been erected throughout a very wide district 

 of country. There is, however, a difference in the style of archi- 

 tecture in this region, which is embraced between great ranges, of 

 mountains, varying according to the belts of latitude, as much as 

 it is defined and limited, by the longitudinal lines. To the north- 

 ward, the houses are but one story, and do not differ essentially, 

 from those of the wild Indians. Within certain parallels the 

 houses are of the type before referred to, being built in terraces, 

 and on the level of the plain, undefended, except by their own 

 walls. Farther south, the houses are placed on the niches of the 

 cliffs, and are raised above the valleys, and assume many different 

 shapes. Descriptions of the terraced houses have been given. 

 They seem to have combined all the characteristics of dwelling- 

 houses, of village enclosures and of defense. The upper story is 

 narrower than the one below, so that there is a platform, or land- 

 ing, along the whole length of the building. The house-tops were 

 used as they are in Oriental countries, as the social gathering 

 places. This terraced form of architecture is the typical one 

 throughout New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. 



The buildings are sometimes straight, with wings running to 

 the front, at right angles, thus forming a rectangular square. 

 Others are built in a semi- circular form with the terraces rising 

 like an amphitheatre around a hollow square. These houses are 

 sometimes three, four or five stories high, and reach great dimen- 

 sions. The material of which they are constructed is sometimes 

 adobe and sometimes stone. The elevation of these Pueblo 



