534 The Ancient Puéblos. [ August, 
the difficulties with which these pioneer architects had to contend, 
resulting from the imperfection of their stone implements, in the 
absence of any metal tools, we are filled with wonder and admi- 
ration in viewing the results of their patient labor. 
A remarkable cliff-house was discovered in the cafion of the 
Mancos river, a northern tributary of the San Juan, in the sum- 
mer of 1874. Mr. W. H. Jackson, the photographist of the 
expedition, thus describes it: “Just as the sun was sinking 
behind the western walls of the cafion, one of the party descried 
far up the cliff, what appeared to be a house, with apertures indi- 
cating two stories, but so far up that only the very sharpest eyes 
could define anything satisfactorily, as we had no field-glass with 
the party. The discovery of this, so far above anything heretofore 
seen, inspired us immediately with the ambition to scale the height 
and explore it. The house stood upon a narrow ledge, which 
formed the floor, and was overhung by the rocks of the cliff. 
The depth of this ledge was about ten feet, by twenty in length, 
and the vertical space between the ledge and overhanging rock 
some fifteen feet. It was perched up in its little crevice like a 
swallow’s nest, and consisted of two stories, with a total height of 
about twelve feet. The only sign of weakness was in the bulg- 
ing outward of the front wall, produced by the giving way or 
removal of the floor beams. Most peculiar was the dressing of 
the walls of the upper and lower front rooms; both were plas- 
tered 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 floor, 
sides and ceiling. In some places it had peeled away, exposing 
a smoothly dressed surface of rock.” (Plate IV,.Fig. 12). 
Such are the outlines of a pen picture of an isolated ruin which 
has attracted, since its discovery, much attention, both at home 
and abroad. A number of clay models have been recently made 
of it, which have been placed in several of the most famous 
museums in Europe. It already figures in some of the standard 
works on the aboriginal inhabitants of North America, and is 
: considered one of the most unique specimens of ancient archi- 
tecture thus far discovered in this section. The illustration will 
give a general idea of the house itself, but in order to realize its 
cae position in the cañon, a vertical distance of 800 feet must be 
1 Vide Bancroft’s Native Races of the Pacific States, Vol. IV, p 721. 
