JACKSON.] KUINS OF SOUTHWEST COLORADO, &C. 427 



Sierra La Sal, and spent two days in the examination of its arid surface, 

 ■whicli is covered with monumental rocks and ridges, but without com- 

 ing across so much as a piece of pottery or an arrow-point. 



RUINS OF MONTEZUMA CANON. 



Turning our backs upon the Abajo Peaks, we struck out northeasterly 

 over the plateau, but soon finding a trail bearing southeast, followed it 

 until we saw that it was likely to continue some time upon the plateau, 

 when we branched off to the left, and in a short distance came upon the 

 very brink of the deep caQon of the Montezuma, one of the far reaching 

 arms of the main wash and valley farther east. Winding our way 

 among rocks and scrubby piSons, we almost literally tumbled down the 

 precipitous descent of 1,500 feet, to a narrow bottom, walled in first by 

 a broad belt of massive white sandstone, rising almost perpendicularly 

 from 20 to 50 feet above the valley; above that the dark red and shaly 

 sand-rocks rose up in receding benches 1,000 feet to a broad tablet of 

 white sandstone on top, so high up that it seemed to shut out all the world 

 and to leave us as engulfed in the bosom of the earth. A narrow but 

 deej) "wash" meandered from side to side, containing just a few scat- 

 tered pools of stagnant water, while dense thickets of oak brush, thickly 

 interwoven with vines, rendered progress anything but pleasant. 



We had gone but a few rods before we commenced picking up pieces 

 of pottery and meeting other evidences of former occupation. Within 

 three miles a cave-shelter appeared, and then as the valley widened it 

 was dotted in many places with mounds thickly strewn over with the 

 ever-accompanying ceramic handiwork of the ancient people in whose 

 footsteps we are following, which occurred so frequently and to such ex- 

 tent as to excite astonishment at the numbers this narrow valley must 

 have supported. The line is so sharply drawn that in an hour's ride all 

 traces of any ruins are lost ; and there is not so much as a piece of pot- 

 tery to show that these people had ever extended their residence be- 

 yond the limits of their caiion. 



Soon other cave-dwellings appear, most of them little walled-up circu- 

 lar orifices in the rock, generally inaccessible, but many were approached 

 by steps, or rather small holes cut in in such a manner as to enable the 

 climber to ascend the rock as by a ladder. Two examples of these 

 kinds of ruins were noted, each about 40 feet above the valley, the first 

 perfectly inaccessible and without the least sign of the original method 

 of reaching it ; in the other one the walls once closing it have been 

 pushed down so that only traces of them remain; the steps leading up, 

 however, show it to have been considerably used ; they are now so worn 

 down by the disintegrating influences of time as to no longer answer 

 their purpose. 



Throughout this caiion we find frequent examples of footholds cut in 

 the rock, in the generality of cases being simply a way of scaling the 

 smooth, nearly perpendicular wall of sandstone, which hems in the caiion 

 on both sides for 12 or 15 miles ; probably a ready mode of escape up 

 the bluff should enemies appear. 



The cliff and cave dwellings, very small habitations, appear to occur 

 in groups, not always in connection with the old valley ruins, but rather 

 alternate in succession as we progress down the caiion. 



In one of the cave-dwellings, perfectly black with long continued 

 smokes inside, and bearing other marks of long use, we found the com- 

 plete skeleton of a human being; the remains, as afterward determined, 

 of a young man somewhat under a medium size. The excrement of 

 small animals, dust, and other rubbish filled the floor of the little house 



