27 



canou they be<iiu to occur quite frequently. We observe first, on the 

 left, the rem ai us of a tower i)erched upon a rock, jutting out into the 

 valley, beneath and about which were other ruins, evidently belonging 

 to the tower. In the vicinity are other " rock-shelters," occurring upon 

 either side of the canon, some merely walled-up caves, while others are 

 semicircular walls built out from the rock and protected overhead by 

 an overhanging ledge. 



Some seven miles from the pueblo, and about three above the McElmo, 

 on the western side of the valley, is a jagged, butte-like promontory, 

 of a brownish-yellow sand-rock, standing out from the m<§sa, upon the 

 face of which are a number of benches and cave-like recesses. These 

 have been built up and inclosed with neatly-laid walls, making six dif- 

 ferent houses or sets of rooms upon three benches, one above the other. 

 Access was had from below, first by ascending a steep slope of debris 

 for about 100 feet to the foot of the rock, where we find the first and 

 largest of the houses. It is some 12 feet in length by 5 feet deep, 

 divided midway into two rooms, but rendered somewhat indistinct by 

 the falling-down of a portion of the rock back of it. The second bench 

 was reached in the manner shown in Fig. 2, Plate 15, the little house 

 there seen being the first of three strung along in a row. Above these 

 were two other similar ones, very difiEicult to reach, the ledge upon 

 which they stand projecting over the one beneath. The perfectly fiat 

 floor of the valley at the foot of the rock contained faint indications of 

 liaving been occupied by buildings; and one of the curves of the 

 wash, here some 10 feet in depth, in cutting away the soil disclosed 

 a thin stratum of charcoal about G feet below the surface ; one piece 

 that we picked out being about 3 inches thick, and the earth about the 

 mass in which it occurred was much burnt, as though the fire had been 

 long continued. About a mile farther down we came to an expansion 

 of the valley with a canon opening in from the west. An examination 

 up this for six miles failed in discovering any remains of stone build- 

 ings, but very numerous indications of probably adobe structures, or 

 earthen foundations for wooden ones; in every instance circular, with 

 a diameter of from 15 to 25 feet. A dozen such were found within three 

 miles of each other. Fragments of pottery of excellent quality and 

 neatly ornamented were very abundant. 



Opposite the mouth of this canon the mesa juts out prominently into 

 the valley. Half-way up its face is a bench-like spur, upon which rests 

 an almost perfectly rectangular block of sandstone fallen from the clifif 

 abo\"e. It is 38 by 32 feet square and 20 feet high. The upper surface is 

 entipely covered with the remains of a wall from 3 to 5 feet high, running 

 around its outer edge; a diagonal line divides the interior into two 

 nearly equal spaces, one of which is again subdivided into three smaller 

 rooms, the passage between them formed by the dividing walls overlap- 

 ping, their opposite ends being set off from each other about 20 inches, 

 thus necessitating a zigzag course in passing from one to the other. At 

 the foot of the south side of the rock, and directly beneath the sub- 

 divided half of it, there is a line of stone wall inclosing a space -lO feet 

 square, the rock forming one side, with the center depressed a couple of 

 feet below the surrounding level. In the right-hand corner of this in- 

 closure, against the rock, are the ruinsof another building 20 feet square; 

 10 feet above the base of the rock, and over this ruin, four holes have 

 been drilled into it, six inches deep and four inches in diameter, serving 

 evidently to support the roof of the building below and to afford a 

 means of access to the rock above, a door-way in the surrounding wall 

 being plainly iiidicated a|; that point. 



