CLIFF HOUSES — FEWKES. 425 
In a somewhat similar way in the modern circular kivas still used 
by the Rio Grande Pueblos the roof has not the complicated structure 
of the pure type of the Mesa Verde, but as in those of the Navajo 
Monument we are unable to say whether it has resulted from an 
arrested degenerate development. In the Mesa Verde we find a few 
examples of flat-roofed kivas, but only a sporadic example of the 
vaulted roof or prehistoric form occurs outside the basin of the 
upper San Juan. 
The elaborate construction of the Mesa Verde kiva is thus adopted 
to distinguish one culture area of the Southwest, and wherever we 
find it we may be reasonably sure that the people who made it were 
akin. 
A typical cliff dwelling of the southern type occurs on the upper 
Salt River, a tributary of the Gila, situated not far from Roosevelt 
Dam, and is shown in plate 6. This ruin, sadly in need of excavation 
and repair, is, however, protected by the Government and quite easily 
accessible from the Apache Trail. Although of large size, its ground 
plans show no circular or other room that can be identified as a kiva, 
the structural peculiarity that separates all the cliff dwellings of the 
Mesa Verde in the San Juan Valley from those of the Gila Basin. 
What most strongly strikes the visitor to these southern cliff houses 
is their relation to environment. Not only the geological formation of 
the cave, but also the human habitations are characteristic. All 
rooms have right angles and are somewhat larger than those of the 
Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. The unusually thick layer of adobe 
l^lastering covering the inside and outside of the rooms is also char- 
acteristic of these ruins. Another good example of the southern type 
of cliff house is Montezuma Castle in the Valley of the Verde, a 
northern tributary of the Gila-Salt. The accompanying photograph 
(pi. 5) shows another example of the southern cliff house found in 
the Sierra Ancha, which belongs to the same type as that (pi. 6) near 
Roosevelt Dam. As examples of aboriginal masonry their walls are 
inferior to those of the Mesa Verde, but the hand of the plasterer has 
so concealed their imperfect masonry that externally they present a 
much better appearance. 
Culturally the inhabitants of the southern type of cliff houses bear 
the same relation to those of great compounds like Casa Grande as 
people of Mesa Verde cliff houses do to those of Far View House, one 
of the pure pueblos in the Mummy Lake group. The great rectangu- 
lar wall that incloses a ruin like Casa Grande is absent in these cliff 
houses for obvious reasons, and the material of which they are made 
is stone instead of earth, but the type of construction is the same. 
Transport the great cliff house near Roosevelt Dam to the stoneless 
plain bordering the Gila River or Tonto Creek and surround it by a 
