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Show 172 « type. Close to them were some good quartz- crystals, of course intruders in such a formation, a piece of chalchuitl, an apparently transported scaphite, some implements of obsidian, flint, & c., and a single perfect lower molar of a large mammal of the genus Jlathmoflon, attached to a piece of the jaw, which looked as though the ancient proprietor had not been ignorant of the peculiar products of the neighboring blnftri. In traversing the high and dry Eoceue plateau west of the bad- land bluffs, I noticed the occurrence of crockery on the denuded hills for a distance of many miles. Some of these localities are fifteen and twenty miles from the edge of the plateau, and at least twenty- five miles from the Gallioas Creek, the nearest permanent water. In some of these localities the summits of the hills had been eroded to a narrow keel, destroying the foundations of the former buildings. In no locality did I observe inscriptious on the rocks or other objects, which were, probably, the work of the builders of these stone towns; but I give a copy of figures which I found on the side of a ravine near to Abiquin, on the river Chama. They are cut in Jurassic sandstone of medium hardness, and are quite worn and overgrown with the small lichen which is abundant on the face of the rock. I know nothing respecting their origin. It is evident that the region of theGallinns was once as thickly inhabited as are now the more densely populated portions of the Eastern States. The number of buildings in a square mile of that region is equal to if not greater than the number now existing in the more densely populated rural districts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Whether this is the case to the south and west, I do not know, as I was unable to devote the necessary time to the examination. I found, however, that without investigation, it is very easy to pass the ruins by unnoticed, siuce their elevated positions, ruinous condition, and concealment by vegetatiou, render them almost invisible to the passing traveler. In general, I may say that the number of ruins I found was iu direct proportion to the attention I gave the matter ; where I looked for them I invariably found them in suitable situations. Perhaps the most remarkable fact in connection with these ruins is the remoteness of a large proportion of them from water. They occur everywhere in the bad lands to a distance of twenty- five miles from any terrestrial source of supply. The climatic character of the country there has either undergone material change, or the mode of securing and preserving a supply of water employed by these people differed from any known to us at the present time. I found no traces of cisterns, and the only water-holders observed were the earthenware pots buried in the ground, which did not exceed eighteen inches in diameter. There is, however, no doubt that these people manufactured great numbers of these narrow- necked globular vessels, whose principal use must have been the holding of fluids, and chiefly of water. Nevertheless, it is scarcely conceivable that the inhabitants of the houses now so remote from water could have subsisted under the present conditions. Professor Newberry ( Ives' Report) is of the opinion that a diminution in the amount of raiu- fall over this region has taken place at no very remote period in the past, and cites the death of forests of pine- trees wThich still stand as probably due to increasing drought. It is, of course, evident that erosive agencies were once much more active iu this region than at present, as the numerous and vast canons testify, but that any change sntticient to affect this process should have occurred in the human period, seems- highly improbable. In other words, the |