350 RUINS ON THE CHACO CANON 



of worship. But little analogy could be observed between these and the 

 Indian pueblo at Taos that I afterward visited ; but stone ruins seen at 

 Nacimiento and near other (now occupied) Mexican towns were very simi- 

 lar, except as to plan, to those described, the ruins about the towns being 

 entirely different from any of the present habitations. 



In many places along the San Juan River pieces of old pottery were 

 observed and remains of several small stone houses. In one of these I 

 found a very fine specimen of a stone hammer, of a natural oval stone, 

 with the ordinary groove cut about it for attaching the handle. A number 

 of important ruins were also observed along the Canon de Chaco. None 

 of those so minutely described by Lieutenant Simpson in 1849 were visited 

 by us, as we did not follow his route only, perhaps, a very short distance. 

 The Navajo Indians ascribed some of the figures and signs seen in the 

 lower room of the ruins to Apaches and Comanches ; but their explana- 

 tions were very vague, principally from the difficulty of understanding 

 them. 



