1876. ] Ancient Ruins in Southwestern Colorado. 35 
windows, considerable care and judgment were evident in the 
overlapping of the joints, so that all was held firmly together. 
The only sign ‘of weakness was in the bulging outward of the 
front wall, produced by the giving way or removal of the floor 
beams. The back portions were built of rough stone, firmly 
cemented together. The mortar was compact and hard, of a 
_ grayish-white, resembling lime mortar, but cracking all over, like 
some of the adobe mortars. All the interstices between the 
larger stones were carefully chinked in with small chips of the 
same material. The partitions were of the same character as the 
smooth wall outside, both presenting somewhat the appearance 
of having been rubbed down smooth after they were laid. The 
apertures from one room to another were small, corresponding 
in size and position to those outside., Most peculiar, however, 
was the dressing of the walls of the upper and lower front rooms. 
Both were plastered with a thin layer of some firm cement, of 
about an eighth of an inch in thickness, and colored a deep 
maroon-red, with a dingy white band eight inches in breadth 
running around the floor, sides, and ceiling. In some places it 
had peeled away, exposing a smoothly dressed surface of rock. 
No signs of ornamentation, other than the band alluded to, were 
visible.” 
Of some of the other ruins observed in this cañon and photo- 
graphed, Fig. 1 represents the ground-plan of around tower, con- 
sisting of two circular walls, with the intervening space divided 
Into separate apartments. A tower somewhat larger than usual, 
adjoining a rectangular structure, is represented by Figs. 2 and 
8. The tower was twelve feet in diameter, and at the present 
time about twenty in height, the wall being some sixteen inches 
In thickness. Fig. 4 represents a portion of a doorway and one 
corner of a carefully built house, while Fig. 5 depicts a cliff-house, 
one hundred feet above the level of the bottom of the cañon, Fig. 
ing a copy of some inscriptions upon the walls of the cañon 
near by. Another cliff-house, eight hundred feet above the cañon, 
!S represented by Fig. 7, while Fig. 8 indicates the tenacity of the 
cement, the isolated portion still remaining firmly attached to its 
foundation. A general view of the cañon of the Rio Mancos near 
its outlet from the Mesa Verde is given at Fig. 13. The table- 
lands upon either hand vary from five hundred to one thousand 
feet in height, and it is in the darkly shaded lines in the upper 
half of the high bluff on the right that the little houses are found, 
48 shown in Figs. 5, 7, and 12. 
