394 EEPOKT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SUEVEY. 



farthest of which has a curved wall conforming with the rounded end 

 of the crevice floor, which, beyond this for some distance, is broken 

 down. 



Specimens of the mortar and of the dressed stone were procured from 

 this house and brought East. JBelow the middle part of this line of 

 houses, on an irregular projection, are the remains of a number of walls, 

 in such a state of ruin, however, that the character of the original 

 structure could not be made out. In digging among the debris of this 

 ruin, I came upon a bin of charred corn, in which the forms of the ears 

 were quite perfect. This corn seems to be of a variety similar to that cul- 

 tivated by the tribes of the neighborhood at the present time. 



That this corn had been placed there by the ancient occupants seems 

 probable from the fact that it occupied a sort of basement apartment or 

 cellar, and had been buried beneath the fallen walls of the superstruc- 

 tmres. Embedded in this mass of charcoal, I found the very perfect 

 specimen of stone implement figured in Plate XLYl (Figure 3). Many 

 large fragments of the ordinary painted pottery were also picked up 

 here. A certain new look about portions of this group leads one to sus- 

 pect that it cannot boast of great antiquity; but it is very difficult to 

 calculate the effects of age upon walls so perfectly protected and in such 

 a climate. 



PLATE XXXVI. 



The group given in this plate is of a very interesting and remarkable 

 character. It was first observed from the trail far below and fully 

 one-fourth of a mile away. From this point, by the aid of a field- 

 glass, the sketch given in the plate was made. So cleverly are the 

 houses hidden away in the dark recesses, and so very like the surround- 

 ing cbffs in color, that I had almost completed the sketch of the upper 

 house before the lower or " sixteen-windowed " one was detected. They 

 are at least eight hundred feet above the river. The lower five hundred 

 feet is of rough cliflf-broken slope, the remainder of massive bedded 

 sandstone full of wind- worn niches, crevices, and caves. Within one 

 hundred feet of the clifi'-top, set deep in a great niche, with arched, over- 

 hanging roof, is the upper bouse, its front wall built along the very 

 brink of a sheer precipice. Thirty feet below, in a similar but less 

 remarkable niche, is the larger house, with its long line of apertures, 

 which I afterward found to be openiqgs intended rather for the inser- 

 tion of beams than for windows. 



PLATE XXXVII. 



I subsequently climbed the canon-walls to make a closer examination 

 of these ruins, and the plans given in Plate XXXVII were obtained. 



The lower house was easily accessible, and proved to be of a very 

 interesting character. It occupies the entire floor of a niche which is 

 about 60 feet long and 15 in depth at the deepest part. The front walls 

 are built flush with the precipice, and the partition-walls extend back 

 to the irregular wall of rock behind. Portions of the wall at the left, 

 viewing the house from the front, are greatly reduced ; but the main 

 wall, that part which contains the window-like openings, is still 13 or 

 14 feet high. 



The arrangement of the apartments is quite complicated and curious, 

 and will be more readily understood by a reference to the ground-plan 

 (Figure 1). The precipice-line, or front edge of the niche-floor, extends 

 from a to h. From this the broken cliffs and slopes reach down to the 



