14 



PLATE VI. 



I subsequently climbed the canou-walls to make a closer examination 

 of these ruins, and the plans given in plate VI were obtained. 



The lower house was easily accessible, and proved to be of a very 

 interesting character. It occupies the entire floor of a niche which is 

 about sixty feet long and fifteen in depth at the deepest part. The front 

 walls are built flush with the precipice, and the partition-walls extend 

 back to the irregular wall of rock behind. Portions of the wall at the 

 left, viewing the house from the front, are greatly reduced; but the main 

 wall, that part which contains the window-like openings, is still thirteen 

 or fourteen feet high. ' 



The arrangement of the apartments is quite complicated and curious, 

 and will be more readily understood by a reference to the ground-plan, 

 (figure 1.) The precipice-line, or front edge of the niche-floor, extends 

 from a to h. From this the broken cliffs and slopes reach down to the 

 trail and river, as shown in the accompanying profile (figure 3). The line 

 1) c d represents the deepest part of the recess, against which the walls 

 are built. To the right of &, the shelf ceases, and the vertical face of rock 

 is unbroken. At the left, beyond a, the edge is not so abrupt, and the 

 cliffs below are so broken that one can ascend with ease. Above, the 

 roof comes forward and curves upward, as seen in the profile. 



The most striking feature of this structure is the round room, which 

 occurs about the middle of the ruin and inside of a large rectangular 

 apartment. 



The occurrence of this circular chamber in this place is highly signifi- 

 cant, and tends greatly to confirm my previously-stated opinion that the 

 circle had a high significance with these people. Their superstitions 

 seem to have been so exacting in this matter that, even when driven to 

 the extremity of building and dwelling in the midst of these desolate 

 cliffs, an inclosure of this form could not be dispensed with, a circular 

 estufa had to be constructed at whatever cost of labor and convenience. 



Its walls are not high and not entirely regular, and the inside is 

 curiously fashioned with offsets and box-like projections. It is plas- 

 tered smoothly, and bears considerable evidence of having been used, 

 although I observed no traces of fire. The entrance to this chamber 

 is rather extraordinary, and further attests the peculiar importance 

 attached to it by the builders, and their evident desire to secure it from 

 all possibility of intrusion. A walled and covered passage-way,/,/, of solid 

 masonry, ten feet of which is still intact, leads from an outer chamber 

 through the small intervening apartments into the circular one. It is 

 possible that this originally extended to the outer wall, and was entered 

 from the outside. If so, the person desiring to visit the estufa would 

 have to enter an aperture about twenty-two inches high by tjjirty wide, 

 and crawl, in the most abject manner possible, through a tube-like pas- 

 sage-way nearly twenty feet in length. My first impression was that , 

 this peculiarly-constructed doorway was a precaution against enemies, 

 and that it was probably the only means of entrance to the interior of 

 the house; but I am now inclined to think this hardly probable, and 

 conclude that it was rather designed to render a sacred chamber as free 

 as possible from profane intrusion. The apartments I, Jc, m, w, do not 

 require any especial description, as they are quite plain and almost empty. 

 The partition-walls have never been built up to the ceiling of the niche, 

 and the inmates, in passing from one apartment to another, have 

 climbed over. The row of apertures indicated in the main front wall 

 ..are about five feet from the floor, and were doubtless intended for the 



