26 



caiions the ascent is more abrupt : the upper third of the escarpment 

 being generally perpendicular, with the lower two-thirds composed of 

 talus. Their summits and sides are usually clothed with a scrubby 

 growth of piilon and juniper trees, increasing in density and size as we 

 approach the divide on the north, while the valleys below sustain dense 

 masses of sage-brush and greasewood, that, in some places, attain a 

 height of from 10 to 12 feet. Vigorous, fresh-looking cotton woods line 

 the main channels, and are as deceptive to the thirsty traveler as a 

 mirage. One may travel for miles in the parched bed of the wash at 

 their feet, while overhead their wide-spreading branches cast a grate- 

 ful shade, and yet not be able to find ,a drop of water anywhere in their 

 vicinity. 



West of the Montezuma two or three small tributaries of the San 

 Juan head from the southera face of the Sierra Abajo, and then comes 

 Epsom Creek, rising among the plateaus farther to the west — so called 

 from the water in one portion of its bed having the effect and tasting 

 like that salt. For a distance of some twenty-five miles above its mouth 

 the valley of this creek jireseuts upon its eastern side a remarkable 

 wall, some 400 feet in height, inaccessible throughout its whole length 

 with the exception of one place where the Indians have made a way for 

 themselves. It is caused by an immense fold in the sandstones, running 

 north and south in a semicircular line, for some forty miles, and this 

 valley has been eroded from that portion of it where the strata stood 

 nearly perpendicular. On the west the beds sweep np in graceful 

 curves to a nearly horizontal position, upon which isolated mesas rise 

 up above the general level in bold relief against the sky. 



The Eio San Juan drains all of this great interior basin, covering 

 over twenty thousand square miles, as well as several great mountain 

 masses bordering it nearly all around. It has at the mouth of the 

 McElmo an average width of fifty yards, and a depth of from 4 to 6 

 feet; its current moving somewhat sluggishly in great sweeping curves 

 that almost touch upon themselves again. The water is warm, and 

 well freighted with the soil which it is continually undermining — a 

 great contrast to the clear, ice-cold tributaries which give it existence. 

 The bottoms are from three to five miles in width, and, bordering the 

 vStream, covered with dense growths of cotton wood and willows. The 

 broad and fertile alluvial lands, well covered with grass, and the low sage- 

 brush benches bordering them, will undoubtedly prove a rich agricultural 

 i:)ossession at no distant day. Back of all, upon either hand, rise up the 

 precipitous sandstone bluffs, p)icturesque iu outline and color, that 

 gradually close down upon the river until it is ingulfed in the great 

 caiion commencing just below the mouth of the Eio De Chelly, and is 

 then lost to all knowledge until it reappears mingling its waters with 

 those of the still more turbid and turbulent Colorado. South of the 

 San Juan, the Eio De Chelly, coming in opposite the mouth of Epsom 

 Creek, does not differ in its caiion character from those of the north. 

 The bordering plateau, however, is more massive and less cut up by 

 side caiions. The same aridity prevails throughout nearly its whole 

 length. 



Having thus superficially surveyed the region on which are to be 

 found a vast number of prehistoric ruins, we will now return to the 

 Hovenweep and examine, in such detail as our rapid reconnaissance will 

 allow, the more prominent of the abundant remains. 



Starting from the pueblo of the Hovenweep, described on page 30 of 

 Bulletin No. 1, second series, we do not find in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood any other ruins of importance; but a short distance down the 



