18 



neighborhood ; the same curiously indented, painted, and ghized ware 

 found throughout iS'ew Mexico and Arizona. It was all broken into 

 very small pieces 5 none that we could find being larger than a sih^er 

 dollar. We had no opportunity to make any excavations about these old 

 mounds; but such little scratching around as we could do developed 

 nothing new below the surface, that which covered the ground having 

 been broken and scattered since the demolition of the homes of the 

 makers. Nowhere among these open-plains habitations could we dis- 

 cover any Vestiges of stone- work, either in building material or imple- 

 ments. It is very evident that the houses were all of adobe ; the mound- 

 like character of the remains justifying that belief. 



The " Mesa Yerde " extends north and south about twenty, and 

 east and west about forty miles. It is of a grayish-yellow Creta- 

 ceous sandstone, with a very nearly horizontal bedding, so that 

 the escarpment is about equal upon all sides, ranging froih 600 

 to 1,000 feet in height. The capping or upper strata are generally 

 firmly and solidly bedded, and retain a perpendicular face of from 200 

 to 500 feet. It is generally, however, a succession of benches, one above 

 the other, and connected by the steep slopes of the talus. Side-canons 

 penetrate the mesa, and ramify it in every direction, always presenting 

 a perpendicular face, so that it is only at very rare intervals that the 

 top can be reached ; but, once up there, we find excellent grazing, 

 good springs, and thick groves of cedar, and the pinon-pine. From 

 the bottom of the caiion up, the slopes of the escarpment were thickly 

 covered with groves of cedar and piiion, gnarled and dwarfed, but 

 sucking up a vigorous livelihood from the cracks and crevices of the 

 barren declivities. Below, the cotton-wood and willow grew luxuri- 

 antly beside the streams, while dense growths of a reedy grass towered 

 above our heads as we rode through it. Throughout its entire length, 

 the caiion preserves an average width of about 200 yards, sometimes 

 much wider and again narrower. The stream, meandering from side 

 to side, and frequently interrupted by beaver-dams, cuts a deep chan- 

 nel in the friable earth, which characterizes all the valley-lands of 

 this region. The banks upon either one side or the other are per- 

 pendicular, so that it was an extremely troublesome matter to cross. 

 Added to the difficulties of getting in and out of the stream was the 

 thick-matted jungle of undergrowth, tall, reedy grass, willows, and 

 thorny bushes, all interlaced and entwined by tough and wiry grape- 

 vines. The current is sluggish, and the water tinged with a milky 

 translucency, gathered from the soil. The bottom is gravelly, but is cov- 

 >ered to a depth of two or three feet with a very soft and miry mud. In 

 every turn were deep pools gouged out, so that the stream seemed to be 

 a succession of them ; rii31es or bars of sandy gravel intervening, through 

 -which the water oozed rather than flowed. 



Entering the caiion at its upper end, we strike into the old Indian 

 trail, which comes over from the head of the Eio Dolores, and, i^assiug 

 down this caiion a short distance, turns off to the left and goes over to 

 the head of the San Juan. About a hundred Indians had just passed 

 €ver it with their horses and goats, so that it was in most excellent 

 traveling order, although winding in and out, and over and among 

 great blocks of sandstone and other debris from above ; the encroaching 

 stream, too, frequently forced our narrow pathway high up on the slopes 

 of the projecting spurs, the treacherous character of the banks of the 

 stream forbidding the crossing and recrossing usual in such cases. 

 -Grouped along in clusters, and singly, were indications of former habi- 

 tations, very nearly obliterated, and consisting mostly, in the first 



