380 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



unrecognizable 5 and between these and the rock were circular depres- 

 sions of some considerable depth, indicating either subterranean apart- 

 ments or reservoirs. !No water could be fouud anywhere in the neigh- 

 borhood. The dry bed of the McElmo was fully a mile distant, in which 

 water occurs during the winter and spring only. 



Aside from the interest attaching to the ruins themselves, there are 

 thrown about this rock and its surroundings the romance and charm 

 of legendary association. The story runs thus, as given us by our 

 guide, and very excellently rendered by Mr. Ingersoll, in his article to 

 the New York Tribune of November 3 : 



Formerly, the aborigines inhabited all this country we had been over as far west as 

 the headwaters of the San Juan, as far north as the Rio Dolores, west some distance 

 into Utah, and south and southwest througbout Arizona and on down into Mexico. 

 Tbey had lived there from time immemorial — siuce the earth was a small island, which 

 augmented as its inhabitants multiplied. They cultivated the valley, fashioned what- 

 ever utensils and tools they needed very neatly and handsomely out of clay and 

 wood and stone, not knowing any of the useful metals ; built their homes and kept 

 their flocks and herds in the fertile river-bottoms, and worshiped the sun. They 

 were an eminently peaceful and prosperous people, living by agriculture ratber than 

 by the chase. About a thousand years ago, however, they were visited by sav- 

 age strangers from the North, whom they treated hospitably. Soon these visits 

 became more frequent and annoying. Then their troublesome neighbors — ances- 

 tors of the present Utes — began to forage upon them, and, at last, to massacre 

 them and devastate their farms ; so, to save their lives at least, they built houses 

 high upon the cliffs, where they could store food and hide away till the raiders 

 left. But one summer the invaders did not go back to their mountains as the people 

 expected, but brought their families with them and settled down. So, driven from 

 their homes and lands, starving in their little niches on the high cliffs, they could only 

 steal away during the night, and wander across the cheerless uplands. To one who 

 has traveled these steppes, such a flight seems terrible, and the mind hesitates to pic- 

 ture the suffering of the sad fugitives. 



At the cristone they halted, and probably found friends, for the rocks and caves are 

 full of the nests of these human wrens and swallows. Here they collected, erected 

 stone fortifications and watch-towers, dug reservoirs in the rocks to hold a supply of 

 water, which in all cases is precarious in this latitude, and once more stood at bay. 

 Their foes came, and for one long month fought and were beaten back, and returned 

 day after day to the attack as merciless and inevitable as the tide. Meanwhile, the 

 families of the defenders were evacuating and moving south, and bravely did their 

 protectors shield them till they were all safely a hundred miles away. The besiegers 

 were beateu back and went away. But the narrative tells us that the hollows of the 

 rocks were filled to the' brim with the mingled blood of conquerors and conquered, 

 and red veins of it ran down into the canon. It was such a victory as they could not 

 afford to gain again, and they were glad, when the long fight was over, to follow their 

 wives and little ones to the south. There, in the deserts of Arizona, on well-nigh un- 

 approachable isolated bluffs, they built new towns, and their few descendants, the 

 Moqnis, live in them to this day, preserving more carefully and purely the history and 

 veneration of their forefathers than their skill or wisdom. It was from one of their old 

 men that this traditional sketch was obtained. 



The bare floor of nearly white sandstone, upon which the butte stands, 

 is stained in gory streaks and blotches by the action of an iron constit- 

 uent in the rocks of another portion of the adjoining bluffs, and this 

 feature probably gave rise to the legend. Half a mile back, or north 

 from this historic butte, is a group of small cave-houses. A long bluff 

 line, about 100 feet in height, of alternating bauds of red and white 

 sandstone, has, along a line of its upper strata, quite a number of shal- 

 low caves, in which are snug little retreats, securely walled in, the 

 masonry perfect and substantial. Along the top of the bluff are traces 

 of old walls, but now well-nigh obliterated. 



While passing the mouth of a wide side-canon, coming in from the 

 right, a tall, black-looking tower caught our eye, perched upon the very 

 brink of the mesa, overlooking the valley. Tying our ridiug-animals at 

 the foot, and leading the pack-niule, with photographic kit, we soon 



