oe 
274 INDIANS OF THE GILA, 
part of the chambers to admit light and air. The 
ground plan of the building shows that all the apart- 
ments were long and narrow without windows. The 
inner rooms, I think, were used as store-rooms for corn ; 
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in fact, it is a question whether the whole may not 
have been built for a similar purpose. There are four 
entrances, one in the centre of each side. The door 
on the western side is but two feet wide, and seven or 
eight high; the others three feet wide and five in height, 
tapering towards the top,—a peculiarity belonging to 
the ancient edifices of Central America and Yucatan. — 
With the exception of these doors, there are no exterior 
openings, except on the western side, where they are 
of a circular form. Over the doorway corresponding 
to the third story, on the western front, is an opening, 
where there was a window, which I think was square. 
In a line with this are two circular openings. 
The southern front has fallen in in several places, 
and is much injured by large fissures, yearly becoming 
er, so that the whole of it must fall ere long. The 
other three fronts are quite perfect. The walls at the 
base, particularly at the corners, have crumbled 
away to the extent of twelve or fifteen inches, and are 
on y held together by their great thickness. The moist- 
ure here causes disintegration to take place more rapidly 
than in any other part of the building; and in a few years, 
when the walls have become more undermined, the 
whole structure must fall, and become a mere rounded 
heap, like many other shapeless mounds which are 
seen on the plain. A couple of days’ labor spent 10 
restoring the walls at the base with mud and gravel, 
would render this interesting monument as durable as 
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