38 



municatiag door between, and a large door opening' outward from the 

 larger one. The upper floor appears to have been all In one room, with 

 one large window facing outward, and much smaller ones in the side 

 "walls. Extensions existed upon either side, and also some kind of 

 structure in front, probably a sort of platform-house, covering the lower 

 door-way. To the right the ledge grows narrower, and gradually merges 

 into the perpendicular bluff; 40 feet from the house, on this ledge, are 

 the remains of a wall across it. About 20 rods above, at the foot of the 

 bluff, there is a deep natural reservoir of water, formed by the accu- 

 mulated rains upon the plateau above pouring over the rocks and 

 scooping out a basin 30 feet in diameter and fully as deep, that seems 

 to retain a perpetual supply of water. 



Near our camp, just at the junction of the two cai5ons, and on the flat 

 surface of the sage-covered valley, were a row of small squares marked 

 out by large stones set upright, such as have been already described. 

 In this case they were of such careful construction and size as to encour- 

 age us to dig into them to a considerable depth. Beyond the scattered 

 bits of charcoal, very sparingly deposited in this instance, however, 

 nothing was found. 



Five miles above the caiion Bonito, the Chelly expands into a wide 

 valley that extends, with slight interrui^tions, to the toot of the caiion 

 De Chelly, at the northern end of the Tuuicha Mountains. It is bordered 

 by low but abrupt sandstone bluffs, which have been broken into isolated 

 monuments in some places, and stand like huge sentinels upon either 

 hand, as if to warn the traveler from the desolation surrounding him. 

 Although the bluifs contain numerous great circular caves, favorite 

 building-places of the ancient builders, yet we find only two or three 

 ruins of that kind, and only in the lower end of the valley, the last we 

 noticed being about eight miles above the caiion Bonito. This was the 

 largest and most important one in this vicinity, occupying a large cir- 

 cular cave very similar to the one of the San Juan, divided into twelve 

 or fifteen rooms, with a large corral or court, and an elevated bench to 

 one side, with a low wall running around its front edge. This had 

 been occupied by the Navajos for corraling their sheep. 



Over the broad, flat valley, sage-covered, sandy, and monotonous, and 

 through which the wide shallow wash meandered from side to side, we 

 found frequent indications of its former occupancy by the old people 

 whom we have been following up, extending southward until lost in the 

 cultivated region about the head of the valley. There were no more 

 remains of stone-built houses, nor the slightest sign of one ; all were 

 probably of adobe, the only clew in many cases being simply a slight 

 mound with considerable quantities of broken pottery surrounding it. 

 Eight miles up the caiion De Chelly are the ruins of a cave-town very 

 much like the one described, (Plate II,) but much smaller, and with a 

 ruined mass of houses at the foot of the bluffs below the cave-like 

 bench.* About the head of the valley the iSTavajo Indians have several 

 hundred acres, in the aggregate, of corn, pumpkins, and melons under 

 cultivation, taking advantage of the water which comes down thus far 

 from«the mountains to the east. From here our trail to the Moqui set- 

 tlements branched off in a southwesterly direction to a low divide under 

 the southern end of the Mesa Vaca, where it turned nearly south and 

 hardly deviated from a bee-line for a distance of nearly 40 miles to 

 Tegua, the nearest of the Moquis towns. 



We will not now stop to discuss the question as to what connection may 

 have existed betweeii the ancient builders of the San Juan and the 



* Simpson's report. 



