JACKSON.] KUINS OF CHACO CANON, NEW MEXICO. 445 



none of which are larger than 5 by 8 feet inside. Tbe walls now standing 

 are about 28 feet high ; those about the right-hand portion are entirely 

 ruinous and it is difficult to make out the original design. Some little- 

 wood-work remains — a few vigas and some lintels over the windows. 



PUEBLO PENASCA BLANCA. 



Two miles farther down the caiion from the last-described ruin, and 

 occupying the summit of a promontory-like point around which the 

 Chaco swings in a sharp elbow, are tbe ruins of the Pueblo Peiiasca 

 Blanca. Next to the Pueblo Bonito this is the largest in exterior di- 

 mensions of all the ruins. With the exception of the Pueblo Pintado 

 it is the only one on the south side of the caiion, and the only one, with 

 another exception, built above the bottom of the caiion. It is also un- 

 like all the others in its ground plan, being an almost perfect ellipse. 

 Its greater diameter is north-northeast and south-southeast. The west- 

 ern half of the ellipse is occupied by a massive structure, five tiers of 

 rooms deep, and the other half by a single continuous row of small 

 houses serving as a wall to enclose the court. The interior dimensions 

 of this court are 346 by 269 feet; add to this the depth of the buildings 

 surrounding it and we have a total exterior diameter of 499 by 363 feet 

 with a circuit of 1,200 feet. The greater portion of the walls is so ruinous- 

 that but few of them are in place above the first or lower story, where 

 they are in places to full height of the second story. The greatest 

 height, however, is maintained in the second tier of rooms from the out- 

 side. The entire outside wall is thrown down, but the end and dividing 

 walls are yet in a fair state of preservation, enabling us to measure from 

 them with some accuracy. The great height of the debris would indi- 

 cate at least four stories in the outside tier. Like the Pueblo Bonito, some 

 portions were built in a very much better manner than others ; greater care 

 seems to have been taken with the more exposed walls, while many of the 

 interior ones were built of rough stones covered with adobe plaster. The 

 twoend walls are better preserved than any other portion, and in them is 

 a beautiful example of the horizontal alternations of thick and thiu 

 plates of stone. There are seven estufas, all situated near each other in 

 the northern half of the inner circumference of the west side of the ellipse.. 

 Five of these are in a solid row, and of the two other larger ones, one i» 

 set back within the body of the building, and the other outside but adjoin- 

 ing it. The masonry of the Interior snrfaces is in good order, but does 

 not show that they were more than the ordinary one-story apartments 

 built above the surface of the court. In the northern angle of the ruin, 

 a break in the outside walls enabled me to crawl into one of the end 

 rooms of the second tier. The only noticeable feature in the rooms thus 

 exposed was the employment of thin boards in the construction of the 

 ceiling, resembling in every detail those described by Surgeon Ham- 

 mond in connection with the Pueblo Bonito ; all the larger beams had 

 their ends cut off perfectly smooth and at right angles to their length. 

 In the centre of the ruin, back of the two largest estufas, are more entire 

 rooms. Two of these, to which I gained access by a small hole broken 

 through the wall near the ceiling, were each about 10 by 15 feet in di- 

 mensions and 7 feet in elevation. One was half filled with rubbish and 

 the walls and ceiling black with soot and smoke. Crawling through a 

 small door-way into the next room, I found a marked contrast to the first 

 in the smooth whitewashed walls, but little stained. The ceiling of both 

 rooms was constructed in the usual manner, a thick matting of willow 

 brush coming in contact with the earthen floor above instead of the- 



