28 



Two miles farther down the McElmo comes in at nearly right angles 

 from the east, and upon the point of the mesa included within the angle 

 thus formed by the two caQons or valleys — we cannot call them streams — 

 are a group of ruins similar to ones above, but much less regularly built. 

 An interesting inscription occurs upon the under face of a large rock 

 that supports a ruin, covering some 60 square feet of surface; animals 

 resembling goats, lizards, human figures, and many hieroglyphicaly 

 signs abound. While sketching these our attention was called to the 

 top of the mesa by Mr. Holmes (who has accompanied us thus far with 

 his division on his way to the San Juan, and who had ascended to the 

 summit for the purpose of sketching,) to some very interesting remains 

 he had discovered there. 



The perpendicular scarp of the m6sa ran around very regularly, 50 to 

 100 feet in height, the talus sloping down at a steep angle. On cave- 

 like benches at the foot of the scarp, is a row of rock shelters, much 

 ruined, in one of which was found a very perfect polished stone imple- 

 ment. Gaining the top with some difficulty, we found a perfectly flat 

 surface, 100 yards in width by about 200 in length, separated from the 

 main plateau by a narrow neck, across which a wall had been thrown, 

 but now nearly leveled. Very nearly the entire space fenced in by this 

 ■wall was covered by an extended series of small squares, formed by 

 thin slabs of sand-rock set up edgewise. (Fig. 3, Plate 20.) All were- 

 uniformly about 3 by 5 feet square, arranged in rows, two and three 

 deep, and adjusted to various points of the compass, but there were also- 

 a few circles disposed irregularly about the inclosed area, each about^ 

 20 feet in diameter, and formed of these same squares, leaving a circu- 

 lar space of 10 feet diameter in the center. These squares occur in- 

 discriminately over the whole region that has come under our observa- 

 tion, upon the m^sa tops and in the valleys, all of the same general 

 shape and size, very seldom accompanied by even the faintest indica- 

 tion of a mound-like character, but nearly always in groups. We have 

 always supposed them to be graves, but have not as yet found any evi- 

 dence that would prove them such. Some that we excavated to a depth of 

 5 and 6 feet, into a solid earth that had never been disturbed, rewarded 

 us with not the faintest vestige of any remains, excepting, in nearly 

 every case, a thin scattered layer of bits of charcoal from 6 to 18 inches- 

 beneath the surface. In one instance, near the Mesa Verde, the upright 

 slabs of rock which inclosed such a square were sunk 2 feet into the earth 

 and projected 6 inches above it. In another, was found a mass of 

 charred matter that promised to throw some light upon the subject, but a 

 chemical analysis by Ur. Endlich proved it to be simply charred juniper- 

 wood, without ]3erceptible admixture of animal matter. In the present 

 instance, as the soil was thin and sandy, in some places blown entirely 

 off, leaving the bare bed-ro«k exposed, we excavated several of these 

 with pick and shovel, there being only from 12 to 18 inches of earth to 

 remove, but in no case finding anything more than the scattered char- 

 coal spoken of above. In some, the earth was calcined, as though a fire- 

 had been made within them, while in others there was no vestige of a. 

 fire beyond the presence of the charcoal. The question very naturally 

 arises as to whether they might not have been crematiouists, a suppo- 

 sition that would have some appearance of likelihood, could we but find 

 any trace of human remains among the bits of charred wood. Scat- 

 tered over the whole surface of this mesa were a great many flint-chip- 

 pings, from among which we picked up a number of very beautiful arrow- 

 points. As the summit commands a wide sweep of country, it is not 

 unlikely that sentries of old beguiled their tedious watch with arrow- 

 making. 



