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Show EXPLORING IN THE CANYON OF DEATH 273 A few strokes with a brush laid bare a magnificent m o s a ic ornament which had been worn around the neck. It was a large, skillfully fashioned ring of h a r d wood solidly incrusted with turquoise set in gum, each piece highly polished and accurately shaped to the space it was to occupy (see illustration to right). A mouse had dug its burrow past the pendant and in so doing h a d detached a f ew of the stones. These were recovered by passing the adjacent earth through a fine screen. Altogether a p a rt f r om i t s intrinsic beauty, this pendant was the most ancient piece of mosaic work thus far discovered in the Southwest; hence the little group of excavators gloated over it as if it had been a king's ransom. A few moments later we stared at each other in blank astonishment, for on the breast of t h e third skeleton there lay a second pendant precisely like the first, except that there was included among the mosaic elements a large rectangle of iridescent abalone shell. A CAVE DISCOVERED HIGH UP IN CANYON WALL While we were still at work on the "boneyard," as we called the charnel place, my wife reported the existence of an obscure cave in a side canyon not far from camp. With the binoculars a line of mountain sheep and human figures, painted in white on the rear wall, could Photograph courtesy American Museum of Natural History A TURQUOISE MOSAIC PENDANT This breast ornament, 314 inches in diameter, made of turquoise set on wood with gum, is the most ancient mosaic thus far found in the Southwest. It was preserved in recoverable condition as if by a miracle, for the skeleton with which it was found was so badly decayed that the bones could be rubbed to powder between the thumb and forefinger. be discerned, proving that the cave had been occupied (see page 292). A half hour's climb brought us directly beneath it, but face to face with a ledge 30 feet in height, worn smooth by the sandstorms of ages. The aborigines had pecked foot-holes in the rock, but these were so badly weathered that they were no longer of any use. The one of us deemed of least account in mundane affairs was called upon to make the ascent. This he did, lying flat against the rock, working himself for- |