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Show 27 canon they begiu to occur quite frequently. We observe first, on the left, the remains of a tower perched upon a rock, jutting out into the valley, beneath and about which were other ruins, evidently belonging to the tower. In the vicinity are other " rock- shelters," occurring upon either side of the canon, some merely walled up caves, while others are semicircular walls built out from the rock and protected overhead by an overhanging ledge. Some seven miles from the pueblo, and about three above the McElmo, on the western side of the valley, is a jagged, butte- like promontory, of a brownish- yellow sand- rock, standing out from the m6sa, upon the face of which are a number of benches and cave- like recesses. These have been built up and inclosed with neatly- laid walls, making six different houses or sets of rooms upon three benches, one above the other. Access was had from below, first by ascending a steep slope of debris for about 100 feet to the toot of the rock, where we find the first and largest of the houses. It is some 12 feet in length by 5 feet deep, divided midway into two rooms, but rendered somewhat indistinct by the falling- down of a portion of the rock back of it. The second bench was reached in the manner shown in Fig. 2, Plate 15, the little house there seen being the first of three strung along in a row. Above these * ere two other similar ones, very difficult to reach, the ledge upon which they stand projecting over the one beneath. The perfectly flat iioorof the valley at the foot of the rock contained faint indications of having been occupied by buildiugs; and one of the curves of the wash, here some 10 feet in depth, in cutting away the soil disclosed a thin stratum of charcoal about 6 feet below the surface; one piece that we picked out being about 3 iuches thick, and the earth about the mass in which it occurred was much burnt, as though the fire had been long continued. About a mile farther down we came to an expansion of the valley with a canon opening in from the west. An examination pp this for six miles failed in discovering any remains of stone buildings, but very numerous indications of probably adobe structures, or earthen foundations for wooden ones; in every instance circular, with a diameter of from 15 to 25 feet. A dozen such were found within three miles of each other. Fragments of pottery of excellent quality and neatly ornamented were very abundant. Opposite the mouth of this canon the mdsa juts out prominently into the valley. Half- way up its face is a bench- like spur, upon which rests an almost perfectly rectangular block of sandstone fallen from the cliff above. It is 38 by 32 feet square and 20 feet high. The upper surface is entirely covered with the remains of a wall from 3 to 5 feet high, running around its outer edge; a diagonal line divides the interior into two nearly equal spaces, one of which is again subdivided into three smaller rooms, the passage between them formed by the dividing walls overlap- | ping, their opposite ends being set off from each other about 20 inches, , thus necessitating a zigzag course in passing from one to the other. At 1 the foot of the south side of the rock, and directly beneath the subdivided half of it, there is a line of stone wall inclosing a space 40 feet square, the rock forming one side, with the center depressed a couple of feet below the surrounding level. In the right- hand corner of this in-closure, against the rock, are the ruinsof another building 20 feet square; 10 feet above the base of the rock, and over this ruin, four holes have been drilled into it, six inches deep aud four inches in diameter, serving evidently to support the roof of the building below and to afford a means of access to the rock above, a door- way in the surrounding wall being plainly indicated at that point. |
