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Show 14 PLATE VI. I subsequently climbed the cafion- walls to make a closer examination of these ruins, and the plans given in plate VI were obtained. The lower house was easily accessible, and proved to be of a very interesting character. It occupies the entire floor of a niche which is about sixty feet long and fifteen in depth at the deepest part. The front walls are built flush with the precipice, and the partition- walls extend back to the irregular wall of rock behind. Portions of the wall at the left, viewing the house from the front, are greatly reduced; but the main wall, that part which contains the window like openings, is still thirteen or fourteen feet high. The arrangement of the apartments is quite complicated and curious, and will be more readily understood by a reference to the ground- plan, { figure 1.) The precipice- line, or front edge of the niche- floor, extends from a to b. From this the broken cliffs and slopes reach down to the trail and river, as shown in the accompanying profile ( figure 3). The line bed represents the deepest part of the recess, against which the walls are built. To the right of b, the shelf ceases, and the vertical face of rock is nnbroken. At the left, beyond a, the edge is not so abrupt, and the cliffs below are so broken that oue can ascend with ease. Above, the roof comes forward and cnrves upward, as seen in the profile. The most striking feature of this structure is the round room, which occurs about the middle of the ruin and inside of a large rectangular apartment. The occurrence of this circular chamber in this place is highly significant, and tends greatly to confirm my previously- stated opinion that the • circle had a high significance with these people. Their superstitions • seem to have been so exacting in this matter that, even when driven to the extremity of building and dwelling in the midst of these desolate cliffs, an inclosure of this form could not be dispensed with, a circular . estufa had to be constructed at whatever cost of labor and convenience. Its walls are not high and not entirely regular, and the inside is curiously fashioned with offsets and box- like projections. It is plastered smoothly, and bears considerable evidence of having been used, although I observed no traces of fire. The entrance to this chamber is rather extraordinary, and further attests the peculiar importance attached to it by the builders, and their evideut desire to secure it from all possibility of intrusion. A walled and covered passage- way,/,/, of solid masonry, ten feet of which is still intact, leads from an outer chamber through the small intervening apartments into the circular one. It is possible that this originally extended to the outer wall, and was entered from the outside. If so, the person desiring to visit the estufa would have to enter an aperture about twenty- two inches high by thirty wide, and crawl, in the most abject manner possible, through a tube like passage- way nearly twenty feet in length. My first impression was that this peculiarly- constructed doorway was a precaution against enemies, and that it was probably the only means of entrance to the interior of the house; but I am now inclined to think this hardly probable, and conclude that it was rather designed to render a sacred chamber as free as possible from profane intrusion. The apartments J, ft, m, n, do not require auy especial description, as they are quite plain and almost empty. The partition- walls have never been built up to the ceiling of the niche, and the inmates, in passing from one apartment to another, have > climbed over. The row of apertures indicated in the main front wall . are about five feet from the floor, and were doubtless intended for t he |
