444 REPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



earth that cousiderable force was necessary to detach it; some smaller 

 bones and numerous fragments of pottery were scattered about in the 

 soil near by ; it was in an inverted position, the crown half buried in 

 the hard earth, a soft stratum above having washed out to a few inches 

 greater depth, thus leaving it standing, as above described, on a little 

 bench. The thin stratum of pottery could be traced also on the oppo- 

 site bank of the arroyo and thence along its walls to the small ruin 

 already described. This deposit represents the ancient surface of the 

 grounds about the pueblo, and was probaby the sloping bank of the stream, 

 which during the occupancy of this pueblo may have been a considera- 

 ble river. {Since the desertion of this region the old bed has become 

 filled to the depth of at least 14 feet, and through this the arroyo has 

 made its present 'channel. A system of thorough excavation would 

 undoubtedly reveal many interesting things, and is probably the only 

 method by which anything satisfactory willever be learned of the indus- 

 trious people who once filled this narrow valley. 



PUEBLOS NOS. 8 AND 9. 



At distances of a half mile and one mile respectively, are the ruins of 

 two comparatively small buildings, built close up under the northern 

 walls of the oaiion. The first of these, which I have called Pueblo No. 8 

 in the plan, was originally a perfect parallelogram, 135 by 100 feet di- 

 mensions, without any adjoining buildings, walls, or court. From the 

 fact that the outer walls are low and much ruined and that the highest 

 walls are all nearest the centre, it would seem that it was originally terp 

 raced pyramidally like the great houses of Taos. The estufas, three in 

 number, are nearly in a line through the centre. The two end ones are 

 quite high and must originally have been at least two stories in height. 

 It is possible, however, that their elevation is due to the fact that they 

 are built upon large rocks which are entirely concealed by the fallen 

 walls. The central estufa is low compared with the others and with the 

 walls standing around it. These estufas are from 18 to 22 feet in diam- 

 eter, with their circular walls 5 to 6 feet high and with unknown depth 

 of debris in the bottom. The walls near the northeast corner and along 

 the north side generally are standing three stories in height, or from 20 

 to 25 feet, with rough debris to indicate another story. The front is 

 much more ruinous. The masonry throughout the building is of square 

 blocks of sandstone about 8 by 5 by 3 inches, dressed and ground down 

 both before and after they are laid in the walls, a clay mortar being 

 used plentifully between them. The door-ways or windows, whichever 

 they may be called, are quite uniformly 27 by 42 inches in size, and the 

 walls in which they occur from 18 to 24 inches in thickness. The ma- 

 sonry about some of these door- ways is ground down so smoothly, appar- 

 ently by grinding, that if a carpenter's two-foot square was applied to 

 their angles it would prove them to be as exact as in the ordinary brick- 

 work of the present time. There is no appearance of the minute mosaic- 

 like stucco-work so noticeable in the other ruins. But little wood-work 

 now remains, what there is consisting almost entirely of lintels of small 

 sticks of wood above the windows. 



The next ruin, which we have called No. 9, is still smaller and hardly 

 deserves to be called a pueblo. Like the last it is a solid parallelogram, 

 but is only 63 by 78 feet in dimensions. The interior is mostly occu- 

 pied by two comparatively large circular apartments, only one of which 

 has its interior wall in good order. The exterior of the ruin, along the 

 front and left-hand side, consists of three or four stories of small rooms, 



