overhanging cliff to our right - A projecting predipitious 
wing of r&ck cutting off out view to the left; we could see 
nothing but the valley below, the smooth glistening face of 
rock on which hung a fjuge overjetting mass of rock above us, 
which obscured the sky. Between this and the ledge that we 
were scaling"*must be the niche and the cliff house. We could 
already see portions of the front walls, built up from the very 
edge of precipice and in a minute we crawled upon the shelf 
and stood by the do or-way almost breathless w r ith the diss 
height and the thought of the consequence of some ghostly 
Montezuman dropping a stone from the wall while we were hanging 
between heaven and earth. This niche is about 100 feet long, 
running against a wall at the South and merging into the cliff 
at the other end as to the one below. The recess in the deepest 
parts is 12 to 14 feet beyond the shelf is smooth and gracefully 
arched, andawfully impressive In its massiveness. The riiche 
is, therefore, unapproachable, except by those little niches. 
(The house occupies the whole space excepting the little land¬ 
ing by the stairway and this has a rude line of stones laid 
along the brink), and when one arrives at the top of this he 
finds himself looking in the only door-way, which enters through 
the front wall and is on the very brink* The front wall does 
not reach to the ceiling and is not entire, having never been 
completed toward the far end of the shelf. There are 6 apart- 
