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Show 33 generally pierced through the wall at a downward angle. No sign of either roofing or flooring material could be found in any of the rooms. Everything of that kind has been thoroughly burnt out or removed, so that not a vestige of wood- work remains. We cannot be positively certain that they had ever been roofed, the mild temperature of this region hardly necessitating any other covering than such as the ample dome of the cave itself offered. Iu the central room of the main building we found a circular basin like depression, ( a,) 30 inches across and 10 deep, that had served as a fire- place, being still filled with the ashes and cinders of aboriginal fires, the surrounding walls being blackened with smoke and soot. This room was undoubtedly the kitchen of the house. Some of the smaller rooms appear to have been used for the same purpose, the fires having been made in the corner against Jbhe back wall, the smoke escaping overhead. The masonry displayed in the construction of thewalls is very creditable; a symmetrical curve is preserved throughout the whole line, and every portion perfectly plumb; the subdivisions are at right angles to the front. The stones employed are of the size used in all similar structures, and are roughly broken to a uniform size; more attention seems to have been paid to securing a smooth appearance upon the exterior than the interior surfaces, the cljiy cement being spread to a perfectly plane surface, something like a modern stucco finish. In many pUces, of course, this has peeled away, leaving the rough, ragged edges of the stones exposed. Inside some of the subdivisions that appear to have been less used than others, the impressions of the hands and even the delicate lines on the thumbs and Augers of the builders were plainly fttained; in one or two eases a perfect mold of the whole inner surface of the hand was imprinted in the plastic cement. They were considerably smaller than our own hands, and were probably those of women or children. In the mortar between the stones several corn- cobs were found imbedded, and in other places the whole ear of corn had been pressed into the clay, leaving its impression ; the ears were quite small, none more than 5 inches long. In the rubbish of the large house some small stone implements, rough indented pottery in fragments, aud a few arrow- points were found. It is a wonder that anything is found, for it i* more than likely that every house has been ransacked time after time by wandering bands of Utes and Navajos, who would search with keen eyes for any articles of use or ornament left after the first spoliation. The whole appearance of the place and its surroundings indicates that the family or little community who inhabited it were in good circumstances and the lords of the surrounding country. Looking out from one of their houses, with a great dome of solid rock overhead, that echoed and re- echoed every word uttered with marvelous distinctness, and all about a steep descent of 100 feet down to the broad fertile valleys, covered with waving fields of maize, the scattered groves of the majestic cottonwood, and the meanderiugs of the Rio § an Juan, these old people, whom even the imagination can hardly clothe with reality, most bave felt a sense of security that even the incursions of their barbarian toes could hardly have disturbed. Soon after leaving the Casa del fico, as we named the last ruins, our trail bore away to the right upon the plateaus, which now begin to broach too closely upon the river to permit us to follow its course, and * e come under a second line of bluffs, which were gradually surmounted also. The evidences of former occupation continue as numerous as " er, finding Bhape principally in cave- houses, all too near alike to bear ? och further repetition. A novel feature at one point is shown in Fig. :>> Plate 18, where we have, a smooth bluff of cream- colored sandstone yo. l 3 |