448 EEPORT UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



two wiugs 200 and 170 feet respectively. The east wing is but two tiers 

 of rooms deep, while the other wing and the central portions are three 

 tiers in depth. The rooms are large, many of them upwards of 20 feet 

 in length, and from 8 to 12 feet in breadth. The masonry is of a fair 

 order, but little inferior to the best of the others ; but the whole ruin bears 

 every indication of extreme age, and I have no hesitancy in pronouncing 

 it the oldest of all. The walls are almost entirely destroyed, there being 

 but little remaining above the first story. The estvfas, three in number^ 

 one of which is 36 feet in diameter, are placed in the angles of the build- 

 ings. The inner walls of these rooms are in much better preservation 

 than the rest of the ruin. In the court are other indications of other 

 circular apartments in so ruinous a state as to be barely discernible, one 

 of which is 45 feet in diameter. The ruins of the wall enclosing the court 

 show it to have been of stone, and to have consisted of two parallel walls, 

 and probably to have been subdivided into apartments, as in some of the 

 others. Midway in this wall, and opposite the centre of the court, are 

 the remains of what were evidently two circular apartments enclosed 

 by rectangular walls measuring 40 by 70 feet, all in about the same 

 state of ruin as the wall. At the east side of the court this wall does 

 not join into the wing; a passage-way of some 12 feet width being left, 

 just outside of which is an immense rubbish-heap, the cubic contents of 

 which are approximately 25,000 yards. 



From the northeast corner of the ruin, a wall extends 150 yards east 

 and then turns south and runs about 200 yards to the edge of a bluft • 

 a similar line runs parallel with it from the centre of the court to the edge 

 of the same bluff", thus enclosing a space of about five acres, near the 

 centre of which is the rubbish-heap. One hundred and eighty yards to 

 the southeast are the ruins of a small, square building in a better state 

 of preservation than the larger ruin. It is 75 feet square, divided into 

 six equal apartments on each side, thus making 36 rooms in all, four of 

 which, however, make room for an estufa. This was probably at least 

 three stories in height, for the walls are now standing- to the top of the 

 second story. The masonry resembles that of the little pueblo num- 

 bered 9. About 300 yards to the northwest are the ruins of a similar 

 building which is in a much more ruinous condition. 



On the morning of our departure from this interesting region I rode 

 from our camp to the foot of the bluff", about 200 yards below Pueblo 

 Bonito, to examine some indications of human handiwork which ap- 

 peared in a crevice, and which I had not theretofore noticed. Behind 

 an immense bowlder which concealed the lower part I found a stairway 

 built into a narrow opening running up to the top of the bluff; some of 

 the steps were hewn in the manner already described, but there were 

 others formed by sticks of cedar placed side by side wedged firmly 

 in the crevice. Portions had decayed and fallen out, but enough re- 

 mained to enable us to ascend. When once upon the summit we had a 

 splendid bird's-eye view of the Pueblo Bonito, it being almost vertically 

 beneath us, and were thus able to make out clearly at a single glance 

 its irregular and complex outlines. The most important result, however, 

 of this last discovery was the finding of a series of water-pockets in a 

 deep crevice in the bare, rocky surface of the summit. They were so 

 hidden from casual observation that one might pass within a very few yards 

 of them without suspecting their presence. In these were thousands of 

 gallons of clear, cool, sweet water, a thing we had not seen for many 

 days, and what vexed us the most, it was discovered too late to be of 

 any more use than for a single draught of the delicious fluid. They are 

 deep potholes so situated as to protect the contents almost entirely 



