NOTICE OF THE ANCIENT RUINS OF SOUTHWESTERN 

 COLORADO, EXAMINED DURING THE SUMMER OF 1875. 



By W. H. Holmes. 



In addition to my duties as geologist to the southwest or San Juan 

 division of the survey for 1875, I was assigned the very agreeable task 

 of making examinations of such ancient remains as might be in- 

 cluded in the district surveyed. 



Much information had already been given to the public in relation to 

 the ruins of Southwestern Colorado by Mr. Jackson, who paid them a 

 short visit in 1874, and many similar remains had been described by 

 early explorers in New Mexico and Arizona, but nothing like a complete 

 survey of this particular region had been made. 



The district examined by our party covers an area of nearly 6,000 

 square miles, chiefly in Colorado, but including narrow belts in the 

 adjacent Territories of New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona. It lies wholly 

 on the Pacific slope, and belongs almost entirely to the drainage-system 

 of the Eio San Juan, a tributary of the Colorado of the West. 



Lying along the west base of the mountains is a comparatively flat 

 country, the eastern border of the great plateau-region that reaches 

 westward toward the Sierras. The surface-geology is chiefly Cretaceous, 

 and the various large streams formed on the west slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains have cut long canoned valleys down through the nearly 

 horizontal beds. In the greater part of this region, there is little 

 moisture apart from these streams, and, as a consequence, vegetation is 

 very sparse, and the general aspect of the country is that of a semi- 

 desert. Yet there is bountiful evidence that at one time it supported a 

 numerous population ; there is scarcely a square mile in the 6,000 ex- 

 amined that would not furnish evidence of occupation by a race totally 

 distinct from the nomadic savages who hold it now, and in every way 

 superior to them. 



At first, it seems strange that a country so dry and apparently barren 

 could support even a moderate population, and it is consequently argued 

 that the climate has grown less moist since the ancient occupation. 

 Be this as it may, I observe the fact that the great bulk of remains are 

 on, or in the immediate neighborhood of running streams, or by springs 

 that furnish a plentiful supply of water during the greater part of the 

 year. The ever-present pottery may in many cases have been broken 

 and left by hunting and wandering parties, and the remnants of dwell- 

 ings far out from water may be but temporary abodes used only in the 

 winter or during rainy seasons. 



I also notice that the country is by no means an entire desert. All 

 along the stream-courses, there are grass-covered meadows and broad 

 belts of alluvial bottom, affording, if properly utilized, a considerable 

 area of rich tillable land. 



. The ruins of this region, like most others of the extreme West and 

 South, are the remnants in a great measure of stone structures. To 



