THE CLIFF-DWELLERS OF THE NEW MEXICAN CANONS. 637 



collection of specimens in possession of the National Museum will become price- 

 less as the opportunity for their duplication passes away. 



The incompleteness of the work of exploring may be inferred from the fact 

 that many of the ancient cliff villages seen by exploring parties during the last 

 three months were merely sketched from a distance. They appeared to be in a 

 remarkable state of preservation, but were not even visited. These villages, so 

 far as could be learned from Indian guides, were never before looked upon by the 

 eye of civilized man. They were inaccessible by any means at the command of 

 the explorers, who, of course, will not rest satisfied until in some future trip they 

 have reached them and carried away their treasures. The cohections made from 

 New Mexico and Arizona already number somewhere between 25,000 and 35,- 

 000 specimens of pottery, stone implements, weapons of war, articles of husband- 

 ry, musical instruments and a thousand and one things which appertain to and 

 illustrate the daily life of the people who made and used them. Two parties, es- 

 pecially charged with the branch of science work referred to, were sent into New 

 Mexico and Arizona last summer. One, in charge of Victor Mindeliff, went to 

 the Moqui country, in northwestern Arizona, to make surveys of the Indian villages 

 and ruins to be found in the region known as the province of Tusavon. The 

 other party, under the direction of James Stevenson, has recently returned. It 

 took for its field of exploration the cliff villages and ruins in the Canon de Chelly 

 and its branches. The main canon has very rarely been visited by white men, 

 and its branches — some of which are equal to it in extent, in grandeur of scenery 

 and scientific interest — have, it is believed, never before been explored. 



The "nests" (no other word is so expressive for the purpose) of the old 

 dwellers herein were built, like those of wasps, in crevices of the chff. The 

 places selected were too small from front to rear to be properly termed caves. 

 They were probably formed by the swirling eddies of the torrent, ages ago, 

 before it found its way down to its present bed, hundreds of feet below. The 

 solid upper crust is long and forms a lofty, sloping roof over a whole village. 

 What could have been the character and habits of life of generations born and 

 brought up amid such surroundings, with a sky of dull red rock overhead, with 

 the outer world possibly narrowed to the limits between the two walls of the 

 canon, and even that outer world inaccessible except by a perilous feat of climbing' 

 such as none but expert gymnasts of this day would care to attempt; a Uttle 

 world upon which the Sun could only shine two or three hours of its daily round. 

 It is to answer these question as well as may be that the explorers were sent out. 



Colonel Stevenson was led to the selection of the Canon del Muerte, in pref- 

 erence to others which branched off from the main canon, upon either side, by 

 the representations of his chief Indian guide, who said that ruins of a more in- 

 teresting character than elsewhere were to be found there. The party entered 

 the mouth of the canon and went a day's journey along its bottom until they 

 reached a place beyond which their wagons could not go, and here they estab- 

 lished their camp. The walls of the canon were of nearly uniform height, about 

 1,000 or 1,200 feet from top to base, always perpendicular, except where great 



