1878. ] The Ancient Puéblos. 529- 
immediate vicinity of all of the larger remains. Great battles 
had been fought, and each stronghold was given up only after a 
prolonged and valiant resistance. 
In the extreme south-western corner of Colorado stand the 
ruins of a once populous settlement, which we will call Aztec 
Spring. The débris of the destroyed city, covers an area some 
600 by 800 feet in extent. The majority of the walls of the 
smaller houses near the out-skirts have crumbled away and now 
present nothing to the view but scarcely distinguishable mounds, 
or lines of original foundation. The houses had been built 
of different shapes, usually quadrilateral or circular, and were 
generally of small size, containing as a rule but one room. At 
the northern end of the puéblo or town, however, portions of the 
walls of two immense parallelogramic valley structures are still 
standing, whose surroundings seem to indicate that they had been 
erected with a view to the mutual protection of a large number 
of people, and for the purpose of resisting a protracted siege. 
They had been placed side by side, facing almost due north, with 
a space between them of several hundred feet. The northern 
circumvallations at present, reach a height varying from eight to 
eleven feet, while the remaining sides and the interior partitions 
lie in a jumbled mass of decay. This is owing to the fact 
that the latter were constructed of adobe. The northern faces, 
only, were built of stone. (See Plate III, for ground plan 
of the village. This and the other illustrations were kindly 
loaned by Prof. Hayden.) 
Over all, a gnarled vegetation has sprung up, consisting of- 
Cacti, Artemisia or sage-brush, and almost impenetrable thickets 
of grease-wood. 
The stones had been cut symmetrically into rectangular blocks, 
and evenly dressed with stone implements; the pieces averaging 
a foot in length, four to six inches in thickness, and half a foot in 
breadth, being usually so laid that those of one layer, would 
break joints with those of the next above and below. The 
mortar with which the walls had been cemented, was simply an 
adobé clay, but as this contained some calcareous dust from the 
powdered limestones which occur in this locality, it has in time 
become as hard as the stones which it joins together. The edges 
of the blocks, as well as the surface of the plaster have been _ | 
wearing away for centuries beneath the disintegrating action 
