18 



beyond the Utah line. The large depressed area drained by this stream 

 contains a great number of rains, many of which have not yet been 

 examined. 



PLATE YIII. — THE TRIPLE-WALLED TOWEE,. 



The group partially illustrated in this plate is situated on a low bench 

 within a mile of the main McElmo, and near a dry wash that enters 

 that stream from the south. It seems to have been a compact village 

 or commnuity-dwelling, consisting of two circular buildings and a great 

 number of rectangular apartments. The circular structures or towers 

 have been built, in the usual manner, of roughly-hewn stone, and rank 

 among the very best specimens of tftis ancient architecture. The great 

 tower is especially noticeable on account of the occurrence of a third 

 wall, as seen in the drawing and in the plan at a. In dimensions it is 

 almost identical with the great tower of the Eio Mancos. The walls are 

 traceable nearly all the way around, and the space between the two 

 outer ones, which is about five feet in width, contains fourteen apart- 

 ments or cells. The walls about one of these cells are still standing to 

 the height of 12 feet ; but the interior cannot be examined on account 

 of the rubbish which fills it to the top. No openings are noticeable in 

 the circular walls, but door-ways seem to have been made to communi- 

 cate between the apartments ; one is preserved at d. 



The inner wall has not been as high or strong as the others, and has 

 served simply to inclose the esttifa. This tower stands back about one 

 hundred feet from the edge of the mesa and near the border of the 

 village. The smaller tower, b, stands forward on a point that overlooks 

 the shallow gulch ; it is 15 feet in diameter ; the walls are 3^ feet thick 

 and 5 feet high on the outside. Beneath this ruin, in a little side gulch, 

 are the remains of a wall twelve feet high and twenty inches thick. 

 The remainder of the village is in such a state of decay as to be 

 hardly traceable among the artemisia and rubbish. The apartments 

 number nearly a hundred, and seem, generally, to have been rectan- 

 gular. They are not, however, of uniform size and certainly not ar- 

 ranged in regular order. The walls are marked by low lines of loose 

 rubble which show no stone in place, and I am inclined to believe that 

 they have never been raised to any great height. It is not impossible 

 that they have been, originally, of a species of rubble-masonry such as is 

 seen in some of the great casas farther south, and that these meager 

 remains are all that is left of an imposing structure, but the total want 

 of regularity both in the form and size of the apartments seems incon- 

 sistent with such a conclusion. In reality they are more like a cluster of 

 pens such as are used by the Moqui tribes for the keeping of sheep and 

 goats. The site of this village can hardly have been chosen on account 

 of its defensive advantages, nor on account of the fertility of the sur- 

 rounding country. The neighboring plains and mesas are as naked and 

 barren as possible. The nearest water is a mile aw^ay, and during the 

 drier part of the season the nearest running water is in the Eio Dolores, 

 nearly fifteen miles away. To suppose an agricultural people existing in 

 such a locality, with the present climate, is manifestly absurd. Yet every 

 isolated rock and bit of mesa within a circle of miles is Strewn with 

 remnants of human dwellings. 



PLATE IX. — RUINS AT "AZTEC SPRINGS." 



Another very important group of ruins is located in the depression 

 between the Mesa Verde and the Late Mountains, and near the divide 



