428 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. . 



a foot deep, nearly burying the scattered bones ; with them were the 

 shreds of a woolen blanket, woven in long stripes of black and white, 

 just such as the Navajos and Moquis make at the present time. It is 

 likely that the remains are those of a Navajo, a people who occupied all 

 this country up to within a short time, within the remembrance of the 

 older persons, and who were driven beyond the San Juan by the on- 

 slaughts of the aggressive Utes. 



After travelling about 20 miles from our starting-point at the foot of 

 the mountains, half of the way in the caiion, we camped at the inter- 

 section of a large caiion coming in from the west, traversed by a large, 

 well-travelled Indian trail, that continued on down, probably the same 

 one we had crossed earlier in the day. At this point the bottoms 

 widened out to 200 to 300 yards in width, and are literally covered with 

 ruins, evidently those of an extensive settlement or community, although 

 at the present time water was so scarce — there not being a drop within a 

 radius of six miles — that we were compelled to make a dry camp. The 

 ruins consist entirely of great solid mounds of rocky debris, piled up in rec- 

 tangular masses, covered with earth and a brush-growth, bearing every 

 indication of extreme age ; just how old is about as impossible to tell as 

 to say how old the rocks of this caiion are. This group is a mile in 

 length, in the middle of the valley-space, and upon both sides of the wash. 

 Each separate building would cover a space, generally, of 100 feet square; 

 they are seldom subdivided into more than two or four apartments. 

 Eelics were abundant, broken pottery and arrow-points being especially 

 plenty, and of excellent quality. At one place, where the wash had par- 

 tially uudermined the foundations of one of the large buildings, it ex- 

 posed a wall of regularly-laid masonry extending down 6 feet beneath 

 the superincumbent debris to the old iioor-level, covered with ashes and 

 the remains of half-charred sticks of juniper. From this rubbish a tine 

 example of a stone axe, about the size of one's hand, was found, with a 

 smooth and sharp cutting edge, formed by grinding it down to an acute 

 angle ; its head was roughly chipped to the required shape for binding 

 on a handle. At another point a small earthen bowl, of the superior 

 ware characteristic of the people, was found entire. No special burial- 

 places were observed, but a number of bones of the lower extremities were 

 unearthed at the edge of the wash, without any stone-work above them. 

 Thens were no cave- dwellings in the neighborhood of this group, but 

 two or three miles below several occured, one of which is built in a huge 

 niche in the solid wall of the caiion, with its floor level with the valley. 



From the last camp the caiion expanded into occasional valleys from 

 500 to 800 yards across, and then contracted to a mere narrow passage, 

 but still all shut in by the high escarpment of the mesa. From either 

 side long narrow tongues or i^romontories extend out 100 yards, and 

 from 20 to 100 feet high, sometimes connected with the main wall by a 

 mere comb or wall of rock, its extremity, however, spreading out to an 

 irregularly oval shape. In the valleys are occasional isolated mesas, 

 the remnants, probably, of former promontories, left here by the great 

 erosive powers which channelled out these caiions. Within a distance 

 of 15 miles there are some sixteen or eighteen of these promontories and 

 isolated mesas, of different height, every one of them covered with ruins 

 of old and massive stone-built structures. They will average in size 

 from 100 by 200 feet square down to 30 by 50 feet, always in a solid block, 

 and, with one exception, so nearly similar that a description of one will 

 fairly represent all. This exceptional instance is explained in the sketch 

 (Plate LII), and the ground-plan (Fig. 1, Plate XL VIII). The peculi- 

 arity here consists principally in the size and shape of the stones em- 

 ployed, as well as in the design of its ground-plan. The ruin occupies 



