Primitive Architecture in America. 817 



The most remarkable cliff-dwellings discovered by Mr. Holmes 

 are sbown in the cut. 



These extraordinary fortresses, lodged in caves 800 feet above 

 the level of the valley, are situated in the canon of the Mancos, 

 a few miles from its mouth. The first 500 feet of the ascent from 

 the level of the stream is over a rough, cliff-broken slope ; the 

 remainder of massive sandstone full of inches and caves. The 

 upper house is situated in a deep cavern with overhanging roof 

 about 100 feet from the cliff's top. The front wall of the house 

 is built upon the very edge of the giddy precipice. The larger 

 house is lodged in a niche or cave 30 feet below. The lower 

 house was easily accessible. The wall was built flush with the 

 precipice, and remained standing to a height of 14 feet at the 

 highest point, though other portions had crumbled away consid- 

 erably. The house occupied the entire floor of the niche, which 

 measures 60 feet long by 15 wide. 



III. We draw this paper to a close, with a few words in con- 

 clusion, concerning the architecture of Central America. It was 

 the effort of our distinguished friend, Mr. L. H. Morgan, to take 

 away the glamour and correct the falsehoods which had gathered 

 around the antiquities of this region. It has seemed to us, how- 

 ever, that he went to the other extreme, especially when he rep- 

 resented the ancient inhabitants as Indians, wearing breech-clouts 

 and scarcely different from those whom we know as the " savages " 

 of North America. There may have been indeed many imaginary 

 pictures of the condition of the cities which the Spanish Con- 

 querors entered, but there are enough ruins of these cities to in-. 

 dicate that a barbaric magnificence did prevail there. "We are 

 convinced that the national life had begun, for a much higher 

 grade of architecture certainly existed there, and the ruins show 

 that the people had passed out from the village life, into a state 

 which resembles, in many respects, the artificial and magnificent 

 state which is peculiar to civilization. City life may better ex- 

 press the idea than any other term. We do not propose to argue 

 this point, but refer to it and leave it to our readers to decide 

 whether the sculptured and highly adorned buildings were not in 

 fact, as they are called in name, palaces. The communistic mode 



