OCR Text |
Show 173 process of cutting canons of such depth in rocks of such hardness is so slow that its early stages, which were associated with a different distribution of surface- water supply, must have far antedated the human period. • Nevertheless if we yield to the supposition that during the period of residence of the ancient inhabitants the water- supply from rains was greater than now, what evidence do we possess which bears on the age of that period? There is no difference between the vegetation found growing in these buildings and that of the surrounding hills and valleys; the pines, oaks, and sage- brush are of the same size, and to all appearances of the same age. I should suppose them to be contemporary in every respect. In the next place, the bad lands have undergone a definite amount of atmospheric erosion since the occupancy of the houses which stand on their summits. The rate of this erosion, under present atmospheric influences, is undoubtedly very slow. The only means which suggested itself at the time as available for estimating this rate was tho calculation of the age of pine- trees which grow near the base of the bluffs. These have of course attained their present size since the removal of the front of the stratum from the position which the trees now occupy, so that the age of the latter represents at least the time required for the erosion to have removed the bluff to its present position, but how much time elapsed between the uncovering of the position now occupied by the tree and its germination, there is of course no means of ascertaining. My assistant, an educated and exact mau, counted the rings in a cut he made into the side of a pifion ( Pimts cembroides) which stood at a distance of 40 feet from a bluff, not far from a locality of ruins. In a quarter of an inch of solid wood he found sixteen concentric layers, or 64 in an inch. The tree was fully twenty inches in diameter, - which gives 640 annual growths. The pinon is a small species, hence tho closeness of the rings in an old tree. At preseut it is only possible to speculate on the history of the builders of these houses, and the date of their extinction. The tribes of Indians at present inhabiting the region at irregular intervals, can give no account of them. But it is not necessary to suppose that the ruin of this population occurred at a very remote past. On the Rio Chaco, not more than thirty miles from the Alto del Utah, are the ruins of the seven cities of Cebolla, the largest of which is called Hunyo Pavie. These have been described by General Simpson, ( lieport of Lieut. James H. Simpson of an expedition in the Navajo country in 1849, Ex. Doc. 1st sess. 3lst Congress,) who shows that each of the towns consisted of a huge communal house, which would have accommodated from fifteen hundred to three thonsand persons. Their character appears to have been similar to that of the existing Moqui villages. The " cities of Cebolla" were visited by the marauding expedition of Coronado in 1540, which captured them to add to the viceroyalty of Mexico. In his letter to Men-doza, the viceroy, Coronado states that the inhabitants on the fourth day after the capture " set in order all their goods and substances, their women and children, and fled to the hills, leaving their town as it were abandoned, wherein remained very few of tbem." There can be no doubt that the Eocene plateau and hog- backs of the Gall in as offer hills of the greatest elevation in the entire region, and it is highly probable, if the account quoted be correct, that some at least of the exiled Cebollians found a refuge in this region, and may have been the builders of Cristoue. This would place the age of the ruins described at three hundred and thirty- tivc years. Of course it is possible that they represent villages contemporary with and tributary to the seven cities. The inhabitants of the rock- houses of the Gallinas necessarily abandoned the communal type of building generally employed by their race, and appear only to have considered the capacities of their dwellings for defense. Yet the perils of life in Cristone due to the location alone, must have been considerable. Infant sports must have been restricted to within doors, and cool heads were requisite in adulfa to avoid the fatal consequences of a slip or fall. Intoxication must have been rare in Cristone. There is no trace of metal in any of the ruins of the Gallinas, and it is evident that the inhabitants were acquainted with the use of stone implements only, as was the case with the builders of the cities of Central America. I have already alluded to their pottery. It is usually of a bluish- ash color, but is occasionally black, brown, and more rarelyred. It is never glazed, but the more common kind is nicely smoothed so a » to reflect a little light. This pottery is ornamented with figures in black paint, which are in lines decussating or at right angles, or closing triangular or square spaces. Sometimes colored and uncolored angular areas form a checker- board pattern. The coarser kinds exhibit sculpture of the clay instead of painting. The surface is thrown into lines of alternating projections and pits by the use of an obtuse stick, or the finger- nail, or it is thrown into imbricating layers by cutting obliquely with a sharp flint- knife. Thus the patterns of the ornamentation were varied according to the taste of the manufacturers, although the facilities at their disposal were few. With these observations, I close this sketch of a glimpse at one locality of the earliest civilization known on the American continent. Respectfully submitted. E. D. COPK. Lieut. GEO. M. WIIKELEH, Corj) 8 of Enginea*. |