37 



we put them carefully by for future investigators. In tlie rubbish at the 

 extreme right, a handsome little jug or vase (see Fig. 5, Plate 21) was 

 found, lacking only its handle. A careful search through the very thick 

 deposits of debris would undoubtedly reveal many treasures, and we 

 felt many regrets that we could not consistently devote a number of 

 days to the pleasant undertaking. We can only expect to skim the sur- 

 face, leaving to others hereafter the more satisfactory duty of exhaust- 

 ing each subject in detail. 



In progressing southward we again find it necessary to climb the 

 steep blutfs bordering the Chelly, here so tortuous and walled up as to 

 be impracticable, if not imyiassable. Once on top, however, we made 

 our way with comparative ease over great dunes of a very fine, yellowish 

 white sand, packed so solidly as to inconvenience the animals but very 

 little ; but much the greater part of the way is over a solid floor of bare, 

 nearly white, sandstone, rising into occasional dome-shaped hillocks, 

 and furrowed by shallow ravines. Sage-brush, juniper, and piilou trees 

 were scattered plentifully over the whole region, affording the only re- 

 lief to an otherwise perfectly barren desert. Traveling thus over this 

 trackless waste, we reach in about fifteen or twenty miles the bare 

 red plains of the famous so-called diamond-fields of Arizona. Beauti- 

 ful garnets were found scattered plentifully over the whole region, but 

 they could not tempt us to linger, for the sun beat down upon its arid 

 surface with such an intensity tliat but for the extreme dryness and 

 salubrity of the atmosphere it would have prostrated anything but a 

 salamander. 



After crossing this plain we came suddenly upon a side caiion running 

 across our course, seemingly a mere gash in the rocky plateau, down 

 into which we were fortunate enough to find a practicable way for our- 

 selves and animals. But what a contrast! A smooth sward of grass, and 

 thick patches of the tall reedy kind peculiar to damp localities, made 

 a change grateful to both man and beast. Continuing down this caiion — 

 which has, in consequence of its inviting appearance, been called the 

 Caiion Bonito Chiquito — a couple of miles brings us to the wash of the 

 Chelly again, bordered with groves of fiue old cottonwoods, but its bed, 

 in which were pools of clear water, was so deep as to be almost inac- 

 cessible. A band of wandering Navajos just before us, with large flocks 

 of sheep, had made a way down, however, that we found practicable. 



An after-investigation revealed the presence of water in large artifi- 

 cial reservoirs, or tanks, in the caiion Bonito, just above where we en- 

 tered it first, about which are grouped a number of old ruins. This has 

 been a favorite Indian wintering-ground, so that the ruins here have 

 been much modified by their occupation. 



Two miles down the canon of the Chelly we found the house shown 

 in Fig. 1, Plate 15. Its situation is very similar to that of the town 

 {.hown in Plate 19, but is overhung by a much less height of the impend- 

 ing bluff. It was reached from the valley by a series of steps cut into the 

 rock, but now so weathered away as to be impracticable. It is acces- 

 sible now by way of the ledge running to the left from the house, 

 some 10 or 12 rods in length, but aflbrding a very narrow and precarious 

 footing. At the time of occupancy this was walled across, with possi- 

 bly a way for getting over or around, for this ledge communicated di- 

 rectly with the p ateau above, where there are the remains of what was 

 possibly a corral. 



The house consists of two stories, 20 feet in height, built against the 

 sloping back wall of the bluff; the lower story is 18 by 10 fVet square, 

 divided into two rooms, one slightly snuiller than the other, with a com- 



