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Show 171 bat by climbing round the eastern face of the precipice a ledge is found at the bas9 of the projecting stratum, which forms the east wall of the inclosurc. This was scaled by means of a staircase of stones, a number of which were in position at the time of my visit. The remaining portion of the hog- back is elevated and smooth, and the foundation- stones only of several houses remain. One of these contains two stout posts, of which fonr feet remain above ground; the last house is near the end of the ridge, and is bounded by a wall of 10 feet in height, which forms it* western side. The walls of these houses are built with a mortar of mud, mixed in many cases at • least with ashes, judging from the abundant specks of charcoal which it contains. It is not of good quality, and has weathered much from between the stones. I could not discover any indications of the destruction of the houses by fire either on the stones or the cedar- posts. The latter doubtless lost by weathering such indications had they existed, and the combustion of the entire contents of such small domiciles could have effected their stone walls but little. I found no remains of bones of animals or men about them. This town I called Cristone. The same hog- back recommences a little more than » mile to the north, rising to a greater elevation, say 600 or 700 feet above the valley. The east side is perpendicular, while the dip of the west side is 60°, and sometimes even a higher angle. On this almost inaccessible crest I could see from the valley the walls of ruined stone buildings, such as I have just described ; but unfortunately my limited time prevented me from raakiug a detailed examination of them. In the opposite direction I observed a similar ruin ou an outlying hill adjacent to the southern portion of the southern hog- back. This one is of larger size than any of the others, but I was unable to visit it. Tbe position of these buildings is susceptible of the same explanation as that of the - till inhabited Moqui villages of Arizona, so interestingly described by Lieutenant Ives in his report on his survey of the Rio Colorado of the West, and of the route from its canon to Santa Fe\ They were doubtless perched on these high eminences for pur-po. sesof defense, and they were conveniently located near a perennial stream, which permitted them to carry on a system of » griculture no doubt similar to that now practiced by the Mourns. The inhabitants of Cristone felt, however, one disadvantage not known to the Moquis; they were, so far as present indications go, without water on rheir elevated rocks, but were dependent for their supply on the Gall in as Creek. I found no indication of cisterns which should furnish such supply in time of siege, although they doubtless could depend for a considerable length of time on rain- water, which they caught and preserved in the many vessels of pottery, whose fragments are now so numerous abont the ruins. , At this point the bluffs of the Eocene bad- lands are from nine to ten miles from the Gallinaa Creek. Hero also the slopes are in places covered with broken pottery, and on the summits of some of the less elevated buttes circular walls indicate the former existence of buildings similar to those crowning the conical hills along the creek. Tbe latter contains the nearest water to these ruins. In other localities ruined stone buildings occupy the flat summits of mesa hills of the bad- lands, often in very elevated and well- defended . positions. It was a common* observation that the erosion of the faces of these bluffs had undermined the foundations of the houses, so that their wall-stones, with the posts, were mingled with the pottery on the talus below. At one point loandation- walls stand on an istbmus, connecting a butte with the mesa, of which a' width of 20 feet remains, but which is furrowed with water- channels. Here Eocene fossils and crockery, including a narrow- necked jug, were confusedly mixed together. At another pnint the nanow summit of a butte, of nearly 200 feet elevation, is covered with remnants of stone buildings which extend for a length of 200 yards. The greater part of them had been undermined, and the stones were lying in quantities ou the talus . it the time of my visit. At one end of the line the bases of two rectangular walls, perhaps of towers, appeared to have been placed as supports to the terrace. Very dry cedar- posts occur among the ruins, and three such, standing upright on the summit ot the butte, mark a spot as yet unaffected by the disintegration of the cliff. In another portion of the ruins a row of large earthenware pots was found buried in the earth. The slow movement of the marl- changes of level had already fractured them. At another locality I took from a confused mass of ruins the temj> oral bones of an adult person, the ilium of a child, ribs, and other bones. At a remote portion of the ruius, on a remaining ledge, I found a square inclo& ure formed of stones set on edge, three stones forming each half of the inclosure. I excavated this for the depth of a foot without finding any indication of its use. In some of these localities chips, arrow- heads, and thin knives of chalcedony and white flint were found, with similar implements of obsidian. The obsidian knives are similar to those which I have seen as commonly found iu Mexico. At tbe head of the Canon cito de las Vegas there are numerous low hills of the Eocene marl, covered with pitlon forests of adult trees. On a low slope of one of these 1 found the burial place of one of the inhabitants, as indicated by his bones, and trinkets doubtless buried with him. His tibia was a marked example of the platycncmic |
