XOETHWESTEEN NEW MEXICO. 353 



connecting- it with the ridge just behind it. The eastern face is a perpen- 

 dicular wall of sandstone rock of about 300 feet in elevation ; the western 

 face is the true surface of the stratum, which here dips about 45° to 55° 

 west by north. The top of the ridge varies in width from 4 to 1 1 feet. 



In riding past the foot of the precipice, I observed what appeared to 

 be stone walls crowning its summit. Examination of the ridge disclosed 

 the fact that a village, forming a single line of thirty houses, extended 

 along its narrow crest, twenty-two of them being south of the causeway 

 and eight north of it. The most southern in situation is at some distance 

 from the southern extremity of the hog-back. I selected it as a position 

 from which to sketch the country to the south and west. (See Geological 

 Report, Appendix Gr 1.) It is built on the western slope of the rock, a wall 

 of 12 feet in height supporting it on that side, while the narrow ledge form- 

 ing the summit of the ridge is its back wall. It is square, 3.355 meters on 

 a side, and has a floor leveled with earth and stones. Two stout cedar- 

 posts probably once supported the roof; their stumps remain, well cracked 

 and weathered. Bushes of sage, similar in size to that of the surrounding 

 plain, are growing within the walls. The second house is immediately 

 adjoining, and is surrounded by an independent wall, that on the lower side 

 of the ridge being still 12 feet in height. The length of the in closure is 

 4.<i9 meters and the width 2.68 meters ; full sized scrub-oak and sage brush 

 are growing in it. The stumps of two cedar posts remain, one 5, the other 

 8 inches in diameter. The third house adjoins No. 2, but is surrounded by 

 a distinct wall, except at the back or side next the precipice, where a ledge 

 of rock completes the inclosure. The latter is 4.02 meters long ; it con- 

 tains a scrub-oak of 3 inches diameter, which is an average size for the tree. 



Beyond these ruins is an interval of 69 meters, where the summit of 

 the rock is narrow and smooth, and the dip on the west side 55°. The 

 walls of an oval building follow, which inclose a space of 4.69 meters. 

 They are 2 to 2 \ feet in thickness, and stand 8 feet high on the western side ; 

 the eastern wall stands on the sheer edge of the precipice. A building 

 adjoins, with the dividing-wall common to the preceding house. Its east 

 and west walls stand on parallel ledges of the sandstone strata, whose 

 strike does not exactly coincide with the axis of the hog-back. Diameter 



23 c I 



