30 



this point, overlooliing the river, are the ruins of a quadrangular struc- 

 ture of peculiar design. 



Keferring to the ground-p]an, as shown in Fig. 2, Plate 16, we see 

 that it is arranged very nearly at right angles to the river, its greatest 

 depth on the left, w^here it runs back 120 feet; the front sweeps back 

 in a diagonal line, so that the right-hand side is only 32 feet in depth. 

 The back wall is 158 feet long, and at right angles to the two sides. In 

 the center of the building, looking out upon the river, is an open space 

 75 feet wide, and averaging 40 feet in d|3pth, its depressed center divided 

 nearly equally by a ridge running through it at right angles to the river. 

 Wejudgeditto have been an open court, because there was not the 

 least vestige of a wall in front, or on 'the ridge through the center, while 

 upon the other three sides they were perfectly distinct ; although it 

 is difficult to explain why it should have been hollowed out iu the 

 manner shown iu the plan. Back of this court is a series of seven 

 apartments of equal size, springing In a perfect arch from the heavy 

 wall facing the court, leaving a semicircular space iu the center, 

 45 feet across its greatest diameter. Each one is 15 feet in length, 

 and the same in width across its center, the walls somewhat irregular 

 in thickness, but averaging 20 inches, compact, and well laid. On the 

 left are three rooms extending across the whole width of the building, 

 each averaging 45 by 40 feet square; on the right only one was dis- 

 cernible. Back of the circle, our impression was that the walls diverged 

 in the manner shown in the plan, although there is so much confusion 

 resulting from the heaping up of the debris that much must be left to 

 conjecture. There is also a slight shadow of doubt in regard to the 

 wall facing the river on the right ; it is barely possible that it extended 

 somewhat farther out, although there is here a steep inclination to the 

 brink of the bluff, and that it has become entirely obliterated by its 

 foundations giving way. The remains of the wall above, however, led us 

 to believe that it had been originally built in the way it is shown in the 

 plan. Extreme massiveness is indicated throughout the whole struc- 

 ture by the amount of debris about the line of the walls, forming long 

 rounded mounds, 4 to 5 feet high, with the stone-work cropping out, 20 

 to 24 inches in thickness. Portions of the outer wall have fallen out- 

 ward almost in one solid piece, the stones remaining spread out iu 

 much the same order they occupied in the standing wall. The stones 

 were of fair size, but yet not so large but that one man could handle 

 the largest of them. They were obtained from the neighboring bluff, 

 and probably undressed, but broken into very nearly rectangular 

 blocks, so that when carefully laid and dressed up with adobe cement 

 they would have all the effect of drefssed stone. Their extreme age, 

 which has crumbled a great many into dust and rounded the asperities 

 of all into shapeless bowlders, renders any conjecture upon this x)oint 

 somewhat uncertain. Where portions of the undisturbed wall did 

 appear above the rubbish it showed a solid, well-constructed masonry. 

 !No indications whatever could be found of any passage-ways, nor could 

 we expect to find any so near their base, for all of the apartments were 

 probably entered by ladders, the same as in other buildings of this 

 order that we have found in other localities. 



Upon either side and back of this building were low, indefinite lines of 

 earth, not more than 12 to 18 inches above the surrounding surface, in- 

 closing areas from 40 to 60 feet in diameter, which were probably corrals 

 for domesticated animals, the walls being composed of adobe or turf 

 brought from the valley below, and which would, of course, wash down 

 to a barely perceptible ridge. 



