668 • KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



the Mexicans, as well as with the ancient and present dwellers in the mountains 

 of Cochiti. 



Opposite to and north of the potrero of the lions, in the face of a cliff and 

 fronting a deep canon, is a series of cliff dwellings, hewn out of the rock, in 

 which centuries ago men made their habitations, lived, and died. All the cUff 

 buildings which Mr. Evans has examined, face toward the south. This may be 

 accidental. They all conform to a general style of construction. This is the 

 result of purpose. They are superior in workmanship to the cave dwellings of 

 Europe, and inferior to the efforts of the town-builders of New Mexico and 

 Arizona. They are not the work of nomads, who do not stop long enough, nor 

 do they have the disposition to hew out for themselves habitations in the rocks, 

 but may be identified with the people who emigrated from the seven cave cities 

 of Aztlan and found refuge in Mexico, one thousand years ago. 



The antiquities of New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona are distinct from 

 those of any other portion of the United States, and the forms peculiar to the two 

 last named are found in New Mexico. The object of the explorations which Mr. 

 Evans is making, was primarily and prominently to throw light on the origin of 

 the mysterious mound-builders, and to find, if it exists, the analogy between their 

 works and those of the pyramid-builders in the valley of Mexico. If that analogy 

 were established it was believed that one important step would be gained in the 

 solution of the problem. 



Beginning in Minnesota, he has by personal survey traced the mound 

 builders to the Gulf, and found an unbroken chain of their curious works down 

 the valley of the Mississippi, into colonies on the principal tributaries traversing 

 the States that border on the great stream. Mounds were found along the entire 

 route and on the shores of the Gulf. Crossing into Mexico, the chain dropped 

 in the sea at Galveston, was recovered near Vera Cruz. On the plain of Cholula 

 is a mound, that, if transferred to Cahokia, would fit the landscape, and appear in 

 keeping with the general plan of the works. On the other hand, if the great 

 mound of Cahokia were brought in presence of Popocatapetl, it would not be 

 abashed, but be a fit companion for the pyramid. The pyramids of the sun and 

 moon at Teotlihuacon would be mounds in Virginia and Ohio, and the great 

 mounds of Grove Creek and Seltzertown might embellish the ancient "City of 

 the Gods." Excavations were made in Mexican mounds as they were made in 

 the United States, and, substantially, the results were the same — tombs in some 

 mounds, altars in others, and nothing in a few. Pottery was found with the 

 lines of ornamentation the same as that discovered in Arkansas ; heads of idols, 

 the counterpart of those found in Tennessee; children's toys from each, that 

 might have been produced from the same mould, and skulls from the tombs of 

 San Juan with the same peculiar flattening of the occipital region that distin- 

 guishes the skulls of the mound-builders wherever they are found in the United 

 States. The presence of an intrusive race was early detected, and the comment 

 made that it was impossible for the Aztecs to have been the builders of the 

 pyramids or any of the works of antiquity in that region. This, Mr. Evans 



