414 KEPOET UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



drilled into the rock, serving evidently to support the roof of tbe build- 

 ing below, and to afford a means of access to the rock above^ a door- 

 way in the surrounding wall being plainly indicated at that point. 



Two miles farther down, the McElmo comes in at right angles from 

 the east, and upon the point of the mesa included in the angle thus 

 formed by the two caiious or valleys — we cannot call them streams — 

 is a group of ruins similar to those already described, but much less reg- 

 ularly built. An interesting inscription covering some 60 square feet of 

 surface occurs upon the under face of a large rock, supporting a ruin; 

 animals resembling goats, lizards, human figures, and many hieroglyph- 

 ical signs abound. While sketching these, our attention was called by 

 Mr. Holmes (who accompanied us thus far with his division on his way 

 to the San Juan, and who had ascended to the summit for the purpose 

 of sketching) to some very interesting remains that he had discovered on 

 the summit of the mesa. The perpendicular scarp of the mesa ran around 

 very regularly, 50 to 100 feet in height, the talus sloping down at a steep 

 angle. On cave-like benches at the foot of the scarp is a row of rock- 

 shelters, much ruined, in one of which was found a very perfect polished- 

 stone implement. Gaining the top of the mesa with some difficulty, we 

 found a perfectly flat surface, 100 yards in width, by about 200 in length 

 separated from the main plateau by a narrow neck, across which a wall 

 had been thrown, but which is now nearly levelled. Almost the entire 

 space fenced in by this wall was covered by an extended series of small 

 squares, formed Ijy thin slabs of sand-rock set on end. All were uni- 

 form in size, measuring about 3 by 5 feet, and arranged in rows, two 

 and three deep, adjusted to various points of the compass. There were 

 also a few circles disposed irregularly about the enclosed area, each 

 about 20 feet in diameter, their circumferences being formed of similar 

 rectangular spaces, leaving a circular space of 10 feet diameter in the 

 centre. These rectangles occur mainly in groups, and are found in- 

 discriminately scattered through the whole region that has come under 

 our observation upon the mesa tops and in the valleys. They all have 

 the same general shape and size, and are seldom accompanied by even 

 the faintest indication of a mound-like character. We have always 

 supposed them to be graves, but have not as yet found any evi- 

 dence that would prove them such. Some, that we excavated to the 

 depth of 5 and 6 feet in a solid earth that had never been disturbed, 

 did not reward our search with the faintest vestige of human remains. 

 In nearly every case, however, a thin scattered layer of bits of charcoal 

 was found from 6 to 18 inches beneath the surface. In one instance, 

 near the Mesa Verde, the upright slabs of rock which enclosed one of these 

 rectangles were sunk 2 feet into the earth and projected 6 inches above it. 



In another was found a mass of charred matter that promised to throw 

 some light upon the subject, but a chemical analysis by Dr. Endlich 

 proved it to besimply charred juniper wood, without perceptible admix- 

 ture of animal matter. As the soil on the summit of the mesa at the 

 junction of the Hovenweep and McElmo was thin and sandy, in some 

 places blown entirely off, leaving the bare bed-rock exposed, there being 

 only from 12 to 18 inches of earth to remove, we excavated several of 

 these with pick and shovel. In no case did we find anything more than 

 the scattered charcoal spoken of above. In some the earth was cal- 

 cined, as though a fire had been made within them, while in others there 

 was no vestige of a fire beyond the presence of the charcoal. The ques- 

 tion very naturally arises as to whether they might not have been cre- 

 mationists, a supposition that would have some appearance of likelihood, 



