RUINS IN THE CANON DE CHELLE. 



In the Canon de Chelle, New Mexico, there are many ruins of cliff- 

 houses and pueblos which were first brought to notice by Lieutenant (now 

 General) J. H. Simpson in his Journal of a Military Reconnaissance from 

 Santa Fe* to the Navajo Country, made with the troops under command of 

 Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Washington in 1849. Some of these cliff-houses 

 or fastnesses are said to be at a height of 400 feet above the river-bed, and 

 are now without any evidence as to the means by which they were reached. 

 The Navajos who now inhabit the valley do not have any traditions relat- 

 ing to the former inhabitants or builders of these ancient places, all of which 

 have long been in ruins. 



The most interesting of these ruins is described by Lieutenant Simp- 

 son in the following words : 



" Seven miles from the mouth we fell in with some considerable pueblo 

 ruins. These ruins are on the left or north side of the cation, a portion of 

 them being situated at the foot of the escarpment wall and the other por- 

 tion upon a shelf in the wall immediately back of the other portion, some 

 fifty feet above the bed of the canon. The wall in front of this latter por- 

 tion being vertical, access to it could only have been obtained by means of 

 ladders. The front of these ruins measures one hundred and forty-five feet, 

 and their depth forty-five. The style of structure is similar to that of the 

 pueblos found on the Chaco, the building material being of small, thin 

 sandstones from two to four inches thick, imbedded in mud mortar, and 



chinked in the facade with smaller stones. The present height of its walls 



37a 



