48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 



The inhabitants of the great compound first described obtained 

 their water supply by means of two principal reservoirs fed by the 

 drainage from the great sandstone shelf on the southern slope of the 

 mesa summit. These reservoirs are natural depressions in the rock, 

 but the capacity of the larger one, which measures 35 by 90 feet and 

 is about 5 feet in maximum depth, has been greatly augmented on 

 the western side by an artificial retaining Avail 14 feet long and 10 

 feet in thickness, with an exposed face of 2^ feet on the reservoir side. 

 So well did this reservoir evidently serve the ancient mesa-dwellers, 

 that, during seasons of unusual rain, water still stands to a consider- 

 able depth within the depression. The smaljer reservoir is triangular 

 in outline and measures about 15 by 19 feet. An interesting feature 

 in connection with the larger reservoir is the remains of a rude dike 

 extending 60 feet along the rocky shelf above referred to, built for the 

 purpose of diverting the flow of rain water from its natural course 

 into the reservoir. 



It is not yet known where the ancients of this pueblo customarily 

 buried their dead, but probably the interments were made in the 

 talus of the mesa, as is the case with the Hopi, of Arizona, to-day. 

 There was foimd, however, in the corner of a shallow cavern in the 

 northern face of the mesa, above the talus, a small cist, formed by 

 a low and broken wall of masonry, which contained the somewhat 

 incomplete skeletons of two adult females, one incomplete skeleton 

 of a boy, and the incomplete and defective skeletons of two infants. 

 With one exception these remains had been greatly disturbed by 

 rats, Avhich had burrowed their Avay through the bones and their 

 accompaniments to the bottom of the cist and fairly filled the re- 

 pository with cactus spines, excreta, and otlier debris of nest build- 

 ing. The remains were accompanied with several pottery vessels, 

 chiefly bowls, one of which was covered with a well-preserved mat, 

 plaited of a fibrous plant which Mr. Lyster H. Dewey, of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, identifies as a scirpus, and almost cer- 

 tainly Scirpus validus. The ornamentation of this ])ottery, as well 

 as of the numerous sherds scattered about the ruins, consists of 

 ])lain red, black on red, white on red, plain black, black on Avhite, 

 brown on white, broAvn on red, and many other combinations of 

 color. All the decorations noted were in geometrical designs. 



On the northern face of the mesa, but practically hidden from 

 A'iew except from one point in the valley below, is a small house 

 shelter of excellent masonry, built beneath an overhanging ledge 

 of the cliff which forms the roof. This shelter, which is provided 

 with a single small opening overlooking the valley to the northward, 

 was seemingly designed as a lookout station either for watching the 

 crops or an approaching foe. Across the valley, on the eastern side 

 of the first great mesa directly opposite that on which the ruins are 



