‘608 The Anctent Puéblos. | | September, 
ancient Puéblo graves, marked off by stones set on edge in the 
earth. 
In one of the side cafions, near an isolated group of mountains, 
in south-eastern Utah, called on the map the Sierra Abajo, some 
diminutive store-houses or caches are perched in the bluffs, 
between the layers of rocks. They are. supposed to have once 
been used for the storage of supplies, as their small size pre- 
cludes all possibility of their ever having been occupied as 
places of abode. They have been made to resemble the sur- 
rounding rock-formation so closely that only the’ sharpest 
eyes can detect them, and then only when in the closest- 
proximity. Nothing can now be discovered in them save the 
mouldering bones and débris of small animals, and in some 
instances traces of fire. If their builders left anything when they 
departed, all such objects have been removed by the vandal 
Indians who still infest the country. 
In passing down the valley of the Rio San Juan, some miles 
below the mouth of Montezuma cañon, a most interesting 
structure may be observed on the south bank of the river. 
This is a long, narrow building, extending around the back, of a 
hemispherical cave, two hundred feet in diameter. The house con- 
sists of a number of rooms arranged around the arc of the semi- 
circumference of the cavern, and the walls in some places still 
attain the height of two stories, which, together, measure about 
twelve feet. Above the masonry, on the sand-stone walls, many _ 
pictures or outlines of human hands had been painted. These 
were accomplished by placing hands against the rock and spat- +. 
tering mud around them. This was evidently done by the labor- 
ers in idle moments as they rested from their work. In one of 
the small compartments, a circular fire-place, two and a half feet 
in diameter, had been cut in the stone floor. In an open space 
separating two of the rooms, four post holes had been drilled in 
the rock, in which, doubtless, the looms of the inhabitants had 
been placed (See fig. 3, plate vi). Many fragments and impres- 
sions of corn-cobs were observed in the mortar, and cedar twigs, 
bent in the form of loops, were still protruding from the external 
: walls, from which, formerly, water-vessels and other utensils | - 
Jide “ American Antiquarian,” Vol. i No, rL- 
small apertures about eighteen inches square, while there were 
