LETTER TO THE SECRETARY. XXIII 



States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, second 

 series, No. 1. 



The following year the same region was visited by Mr. W. H. Holmes, 

 one of the geologists of the Survey, and a careful investigation made of 

 all the ruins. Mr. Jackson, who had made the report the previous year, 

 also revisited this locality, but extended his explorations down the San 

 Juan to the mourh of the De Chelly, and thence to the Moqui villages 

 in Northeastern Arizona. Eeturning, the country between the Sierra 

 Abajo and La Sal and the La Plata was traversed, and an immense number 

 of very interesting ruins were first brought to the attention of the outside 

 world by the report which was published the following winter in the 

 Bulletin of the Survey, Vol. IT, No. 1. 



The full report on these ancient ruins, so far as the Survey is con- 

 cerned, was published in the Tenth Annual Beport of the Survey, with 

 many illustrations. 



The occasion of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia led to the 

 idea of preparing models of these ruins for the clearer illustration of 

 their peculiarities, four of which were completed in season for the open- 

 ing of the exhibition. Since that time not only the number of these 

 interesting models has been increased, but they have been perfected in 

 execution and faithful delineation of these mysterious remains of an 

 extinct race who once lived within the borders of our western domain. 



A study of these models will give a very excellent idea of the ruined 

 dwellings themselves. The first of these models, executed by Mr. 

 Holmes, represents the cliff house of the Mancos Canon, the exterior di- 

 mensions of which are 28 inches in breadth by 46 inches in height, and 

 on a scale of 1.24, or two feet to the inch. This is a two-story building, 

 constructed of stone, occupying a narrow ledge in the vertical face of the 

 bluff 700 feet above the valley, and 200 feet from the top. It is 24 feet 

 in length and 14 feet in depth, and divided into four rooms on the 

 ground-floor. The beams supporting the second floor are all destroyed. 

 The doorways, serving also as windows, were quite small, only one small 

 aperture in the outer wall facing the valley. The exposed walls were 

 lightly plastered over with clay, and so closely resembled the general 

 surface of the bluff that it becomes exceedingly difficult to distinguish 

 them at a little distance from their surroundings. 



The second model of this series was constructed by Mr. Jackson, and 

 represents the large '"'cave town," in the valley of the Eio de Chelly 

 near its junction with the San Juan. This town is located upon a nar- 

 row bench, occurring about 80 feet above the base of a perpendicular 

 bluff some 300 feet in height. It is 545 feet in length, about 40 feet at 

 its greatest depth, and shows about 75 apartments on its ground plan. 

 The left-hand third of the town, as we face it, is overhung some distance 

 by the bluff, protecting the buildings beneath much more perfectly than 

 the others. This is the portion represented by the model. A three- 

 story tower forms the central feature; upon either side are rows of 



