9 



by a low ridge of earth. The remaining fragments of wall are at the 

 remoter parts of the circles, and are in every respect like the walls 

 already described. The inner wall, which can be traced but a short dis- 

 tance, is 8J feet from the outer, and has been connected by partition- 

 walls, as in the other case. 



The first impression given by this curious inclosure is that it was 

 designed for a '' corral", and used for the protection of herds of domestic 

 animals; but since these people are not known to have possessed 

 domestic animals, and when we further consider that inclosures of pickets 

 would have served this purpose as well as such a massive and extraor- 

 dinary structure, we can hardly avoid assigning it to some other use, 

 which use, doubtless similar to that of the smaller tower, is very natur- 

 ally suggested by its location and construction. 



That they both belonged to the community of cave-dwellers, and served 

 as their fortresses, council-chambers, and places of worship, would seem 

 to be natural and reasonable inferences. Being on the border of a low 

 mesa country that rises toward the north, the strong outside walls were 

 doubtless found necessary to prevent incursions from that direction, 

 while the little community by means of ladders would be free to pass 

 from dwelling to temple and fortress without danger of molestation. 



The original height of these structures must necessarily be a matter 

 of conjecture, and it is true that although there is every evidence of age, 

 both in the cave-dwellings and in the walled inclosures above, the lack 

 of great quantities of crumbling walls and debris, and the general bare- 

 ness of the ruins, give rise to the notion that they were but meager 

 affairs. If we conclude, however, that the outer walls were constructed 

 for defense, and their thickness and form favor such a hypothesis, their 

 height would probably have been as great as fifteen or twenty feet, 

 while the inner walls, being equally heavy and well built, would be suf- 

 ficiently high to accommodate two or three stories. With these conclu- 

 sions in view, I have ventured to present a sketch showing a restoration 

 of the smaller tower (plate III). This sketch illustrates the probable 

 apjjearance of the dwellings and tower, and the supposed means of 

 communication between them. 



The manner of walling up the fronts of the cave-dwellings, as here 

 .given, was observed frequently on the Eio Mancos, where, in correspond- 

 ing cliffs of shaly sandstones, there are many well-preserved specimens. 

 A large group situated on this stream, about ten miles above its mouth, 

 was subsequently examined. The walls were in many places quite well 

 preserved and new-looking, while all about, high and low, were others 

 in all stages of decay. In one place in i)articular, a i>icturesque out- 

 standing promontory has been full of dwellings, literally honeycombed 

 by this earth-burrowing race, and as one from below views the ragged, 

 window-pierced crags, he is unconsciously led to wonder if they are not 

 the ruins of some ancient castle, behind whose moldering walls are 

 hidden the dread secrets of a long-forgotten people ; but a nearer ap- 

 proach quickly dispels such fancies, for the windows prove to be only 

 the doorways to shallow and irregular apartments, hardly sufliciently 

 commodious for a race of pigmies. Neither the outer openings nor the 

 apertures that communicate between the caves are large enough to 

 allow a person of large stature to pass, and one is led to suspect that 

 these nests were not the dwellings proper of these people, but occasional 

 resorts for women and children, and that the somewhat extensive ruins 

 in the valley below were their ordinary dwelling-places. On the brink 

 of the promontory above stands the ruin of a tower, still twelve feet 

 high, and similar in most respects to those already described. These 



