19 



between the McElmo and Lower Mancos drainage. It is stated by 

 Captain Moss and otliers who have been in this locality that up to 

 -within two or three years there has been a living-spring at this place, 

 and the spot has been christened by them Aztec Springs. 



The site of the spring I found, but without the least appearance of 

 water. The depression formerly occupied by it is near the center of a 

 large mass of ruins, similar to the group last described, but having a 

 rectangular instead of a circular building as the chief and central struc- 

 ture. This I have called the upper hottsein the plate, and a large walled 

 inclosure a little lower on the slope, I have, for the sake of distinction, 

 called the lotcer house. 



These ruins form the most imposing pile of masonry yet found in Col- 

 orado. The whole group covers an area of about fonr hundred and 

 eighty thousand square feet, and has an average depth of from three to 

 four feet. This would give in the vicinity of one million five hundred 

 thousand solid feet of stone-work. The stone used is chiefly of the fos- 

 siliferous limestone that outcrops along the base of the Mesa Verde a mile 

 or more away, and its transportation to this place has doubtless been a 

 great work for a people so totally without facilities. 



The upper house is rectangular, measures 80 by 100 feet, and is built 

 with the cardinal points to within five degrees. The pile is from 12 to 

 15 feet in height, and its massiveness suggests an original height at least 

 twice as great. The plan is somewhat difhcult to make out on account 

 of the very great quantity of debris. 



The walls seem to have been double, with a space of 7 feet between ; 

 a number of cross- walls at regular intervals indicate that this space has 

 been divided into apartments, as seen in tbe plan. 



The walls are 26 inches thick, and are built of roughly-dressed stones, 

 which were probably laid in mortar, as in other cases. 



The Inclosed space, which is somewhat depressed, has two lines of 

 debris, i^robably the remains of partition-walls, separating it into the 

 three apartments, a, &, c. Inclosing this great house is a net-work of 

 fallen walls, so completely reduced that none of the stones seem to 

 remain in place ; and I am at a loss to determine whether they mark the 

 site of a cluster of irregular apartments, having low, loosely-built walls, 

 or whether they are the remains of some imposing adobe structure 

 built after the manner of the ruined pueblos of the Eio Chaco. 



Two well-defined circular inclosures or estufas are situated in the 

 midst of the southern wing of the ruin. The upper one. A, is on the 

 opposite side of the spring from the great house, is 60 feet in diame- 

 ter, and is surrounded by a low stone wall. West of the house is a 

 small open court, which seems to have had a gate-way opening out to 

 the west, through the surrounding walls. 



The lower house is 200 feet in length by ISO in width, and its walls 

 vary fifteen degrees from the cardinal i^oints. The northern wall, a, is 

 double, and contains a row of eight apartments about 7 feet in width 

 by 24 in length. The walls of the other sides are low, and seem to have 

 served simply to inclose the great court, near the center of which is a 

 large walled depression, (estufa B.) No other ruins were observed in the 

 neighborhood of these, although small groups are said to exist along 

 the base of the Late Mountains, a few miles to the southwest. 



PLATE X. — EUIN AT OJO CALIEJJTE, NEW MEXICO. 



For the sake of comparison, I present io Plate X, the ground-plan of 

 a ruined pueblo found at OJo Caliente, New Mexico. It occurs on a high, 



