36 INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. 
long poles lie across them parallel to the walls, the poles are covered with 
a layer of cedar bast and, finally, with dried clay. This baleony was 
used as a means of communication between the rooms in the upper 
story. 
| Aztec. ‘The ruin called Aztec near the town of that 
name stands in an open valley. It is rectangular in 
shape with tiers of rooms on three sides. There are 
from five to seven rooms in width on the ground floor, 
and the outer row probably was originally four or five 
stories high, the walls of the ruin standing 29 feet above 
the foundation. The dimensions of the building are 359 
by 280 feet, enclosing a court 180 by 200feet. The fourth 
side of this court is closed by a row of one-story 
rooms. There are remains of what was probably a 
rampart some yards distant which with the row of one- 
story rooms would have made the place easy to defend. 
From evidences observed it appears some parts of this 
structure were abandoned before others so that it is 
not probable that the entire building was occupied at 
one time. The excavation of the ruin was undertaken 
by the American Museum of Natural History in 1916 
and has been continued each summer since. The walls 
are being reinforced with the expectation that the ruin 
will remain for years as a type of one of the larger com- 
munity buildings unprotected by overhanging cliffs. 
Pueblo Bonito. In Chaco Canyon stands a typical 
unprotected ruin of a large community house known 
as Pueblo Bonito. It is close to the north wall of the 
canyon, roughly semicircular in shape, with five or more 
rows of rooms on the ground, and was originally four or 
five stories high. Across the front was a double row of 
rooms one story high which enclosed a court, in which 
were twenty or more kivas. The entire length of the 
structure was 667 feet and its width 315 feet. It con- 
tained more than 500 rooms. The masonry of the walls 
varies in character, that of the first story being com- 
