REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 71 



Mr. B. S. Gulia's visit among the Utes and the Navaho at Towoac 

 and Shiprock, respectively, during the summer of 1921 was under- 

 taken primarily with the object of finding any legends or myths 

 about the ancient Cliff Dwellers of Mesa Verde that might still sur- 

 vive among these people, and incidentally to collect as much material 

 about their social institutions as possible. 



Mr. Guha arrived at Towoac on July 14, 1921, and spent a couple 

 of weeks visiting the different camps of the Utes. Among the Wimi- 

 nuche Utes, unfortunately, there does not appear to survive any 

 legends or myths about the Mesa Verde, All that could be gathered 

 from the oldest living members of the tribe was that when their an- 

 cestors first came to the Ute Mountain from the north, the whole 

 region from the La Plata to the Blue Mountains and from Dolores 

 to the San Juan was full of ruins such as now may be seen. They 

 were already abandoned, but there were signs of the cultivation of 

 corn about them. 



After leaving Towoac Mr. Guha went to Shiprock, N. Mex., and 

 stayed there until September 5, 1921. Unlike the Utes, the Navaho 

 seem to possess survivals of myths about the ancient Cliff Dwellers 

 of Mesa Verde. How far these legends have any historical back- 

 ground it is difficult to say, but they at any rate suggest some earlier 

 and closer relationhip betAveen them and the people who lived in the 

 ruins so liberally strewn over the entire region. 



In September, 1921, Mr. John L. Baer, acting curator of Amer- 

 ican archeology in the United States National Museum, made an 

 investigation for the bureau of pictographic rocks in the Susque- 

 hanna River. In the middle of the river between Bald Friar and 

 Conowingo, Md., are a number of huge boulders of serpentine or 

 gabbro, bearing inscriptions, a few of which have been heretofore 

 described in the Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology and in Volume CCC (Lancaster County) Second Geo- 

 logical Survey of Pennsylvania. The largest and most important of 

 these pictographic rocks were found to be on Miles' Island at the 

 head of Gray Rock Falls. Large surfaces of these rocks seem to 

 have been polished before the figures were pecked upon them. Pits, 

 grooved lines indicating tally marks, circles with radiating spokes, 

 concentric circles, faces, and fishlike outlines were the prevailing 

 figures observed. 



Other groups of rocks between this island and Conowingo showed 

 equally interesting carvings, but not so profusely. A pyramid- 

 shaped rock standing well out in the rough and dangerous rapids 

 had several fish outlined near its apex. A slab which had been 

 broken from its original position and which might have been used 

 for a shad-dipping stand, was marked with outlines of two slender 



