HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



the adobe rolls. It is doubtful if there were more than two or perhaps 

 three layers of these stones in the entire height of the wall. 



Slight traces of smoke on the inner surface brings up the question 

 of the possible prehistoric use of this structure as a dwelling. One 

 small peg-hole, about 12 inches from the top of the rear wall, indicates 

 the former presence of a wooden hanger, similar to those so frequently 

 seen in both historic and prehistoric Pueblo villages. A door, large 

 enough for easy admittance, opened toward the cave entrance. 



At first thought, doorway, peg-hole, and smoke stains all suggest 

 the former occupancy of this circular room. Doorways, however, 

 have been noted in small storage bins, with walls constructed as were 

 the walls of this room, in Grand gulch and White canon, east of the 

 Rio Colorado, and north of the San Juan. The presence of a wall- 

 peg would be unusual if it were certain that this structure had been 

 utilized solely for the preservation of grain — a diameter of 11 feet, 

 however, indicates that the building may have served additional pur- 

 poses. The smoke stains might easily have resulted from fires built 

 within the walls subsequent to the abandonment of the cave, for the 

 region has long been familiar to the Navaho and Paiute, and more 

 recently cowboys have occupied other and larger caverns in the same 

 canon. Inasmuch as the floor of this structure was not exposed, it 

 seems necessary to postpone any attempt to determine the original 

 use of the room until it and other similar buildings have been more 

 thoroughly examined. 



As noted above, Arizona cliff-houses embracing walls made of 

 tabular adobe bricks reenforced with grass or twigs have been re- 

 ported only in the canons forming the source of Navaho creek. That 

 ancient house walls in this region, built of adobe strengthened with 

 vegetal matter, are not always separable into blocks or bricks is evi- 

 dent from the following observation of Prof. Byron Cummings: 1 



In one of the branches of Nitsi canon south of Navajo mountain, where 

 good workable stone was not so abundant, were found well-built houses of adobe. 

 Here the foundations and sometimes the entire first story were of stone laid in 

 an abundance of clay mortar, while the superstructures were of adobe. In some of 

 these walls the clay had been mixed with grass and molded into large rectangu- 

 lar adobe bricks before being built into the wall, while in others the wall had been 

 built up in horizontal sections supporting the sides with flat stone and then filling 

 in the trough so made with clay in which grass or willow twigs were laid for 

 strengthening material. 



Professor Cummings, at present head of the department of an- 

 thropology in the University of Arizona, is more widely acquainted 



1 Bull. University of Utah, vol. 3, no. 3, pt. 2, p. 27, 1910. 



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