Jackson.] ANCIENT RUINS IN S. W. COLORADO. . 373 



size, shape, and position to the door below, commands an extended 

 view down the canon. The upper lintel of this window was of small, 

 straight sticks of cedar, of about the size of one's finger, laid close 

 together, the small stones of the masonry resting upon them. Directly 

 opposite this window is a similar one, opening into a large reservoir, or 

 cistern, the upper walls of which come nearly to the top of the window. 

 This is semicircular, inclosing the angle .formed by the side wall of the 

 house against the rock, with an approximate capacity of about two and 

 a half hogsheads. From the window, and extending down to the bot- 

 tom of the reservoir, are a series of cedar pegs, about a foot apart, 

 enabling the occupants to easily reach the bottom. The entire con- 

 struction of this little human eyrie displays wonderful perseverance, 

 ingenuity, and some taste. Perpendiculars were well regarded, and 

 the angles carefully squared. The stones of the outer rooms or front 

 were all squared and smoothly faced, but were not laid in regular 

 courses, as they are not uniform in size, ranging from 15 inches in 

 length and 8 in thickness down to very small ones. About the corners 

 and the windows, considerable care and judgment were evident in the 

 overlapping of the joints, so that all was held firmly together. The 

 only sign of weakness is in the bulging outward of the front wall, pro- 

 duced by the giving way or removal of the floor-beams. The back 

 portion is built of rough stone, firmly cemented together. The mortar 

 is compact and hard, a grayish-white, resembling lime, but cracking all 

 over. All the interstices between the larger stones were carefully 

 chinked in with small chips of the same material. The partitions were 

 of the same character as the smooth wall outside, both presenting some- 

 what the appearance of having been rubbed down smooth after they 

 were laid. The apertures, from one room to another, are small, corre- 

 sponding in size and position to those outside. Most peculiar, however, 

 is the dressing of the walls of the upper and lower front rooms, both 

 being plastered with a thin layer of firm adobe cement of about au 

 eighth of an inch in thickness, and colored a deep maroon-red, with a 

 dingy white band 8 inches in breadth, running around floor, sides, and 

 ceiling. In some places it has peeled away, exposing a smoothly-dressed 

 surface of rock. No signs of ornamentation, other than the baud al- 

 luded to, were visible. The floor, which was covered to a depth of 2 or 

 3 inches with dust, dirt, and the excrement of small animals, had been 

 evened up with a cement resembling that in the walls. The back rooms 

 were half-filled with rocky debris from roof and cliff. 



While busied with my negatives, the others had prospected the ledge 

 in opposite directions, coming upon ample evidence of its having been 

 quite thickly peopled. Ruins of half a dozen lesser houses were found 

 near by, but all in such exposed situations as to be quite dilapidated. 

 Some had been crushed by the overhanging wall falling upon them, and 

 others had lost their foot-hold and tumbled down the precipice. One 

 little house in particular, at the extremity of this ledge, about fifty rods 

 below the one described above, was especially unique in the daring of 

 its site, filling the mind with amazement at the temerity of the builders 

 and the extremity to which they must have been pushed. Careful 

 views of this having been secured so as to show as well as possible its 

 almost complete inaccessibility, we felt impelled to hurry on to new 

 developments. Apparatus was carefully lowered to the patiently-wait- 

 ing mule, and adjusted to the pack-saddle, then, mounting our own 

 animals, we pushed on down the caiion, which now opened out into 

 quite a valley, side canons opening in from either hand, adding much 

 to the space. Every quarter-mile, at the most, we came upon evidences 



