HUMAN CLIFF-DWKLLBUS. 91 



North of tMs the river Dolero begins in the San 

 Miguel Mountains, and flowing west and north at last 

 joins the Rio Grande. It is in the upper courses of 

 the two former rivers that the ruined cliff-dwellings 

 are found. The mountains tower to the height of 

 fourteen thousand feet, bare and bleak. Instead of 

 the smiling river valleys of the eastern part of the con- 

 tinent, there are deep, gloomy ravines called canons, 

 worn down from the surface of the ground to a depth 

 of from five hundred to two thousand feet, often so 

 narrow that a ray of sunshine seldom or never pene- 

 trates their shadowy recesses. A few cottonwood trees 

 are dotted along these canons, and at intervals, where 

 they widen out, a patch of scanty wire grass tinges 

 the gravelly soil a faint green. Above is a desert 

 waste of sand and sagebrush and stunted greasewood, 

 peopled only by rattlesnakes, horned toads, and taran- 

 tulas. Patches of white alkali on the sand look like 

 snow, but the sun beats down upon the dry earth with 

 pitiless fury. 



It would be, indeed, hard to believe, in the absence 

 of the ruined habitations to be found on every side, 

 that this dreary land was once thronged with semi- 

 civihzed races ; but along the terraced faces of the 

 more open canons cluster multitudes of picturesque 

 ruins, in the valleys the remains of pueblas, and in 

 the wilder ravines may be seen single habitations, 

 perched like the nests of the cliff swallow upon the 

 face of the perpendicular precipices. Here the peace- 

 ful tillers of the soil retreated when attacked by 

 predatory tribes, and here remained, living upon the 



