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Show 17 overhang to any extent, and mast, year by year, yield a little to the elements; bat I observe that since the construction of these foundations DO perceptible change has taken place; the thickness of a sheet of paper has hardly been washed from the surface of the rock, and the mortar, which is of almost equal firmness with the rock, lies upon it as if placed there within a dozen years, and the plaster on the outer wall, although somewhat cracked and broken off, does not add greatly to our impressions of antiquity. There is also a fact worthy of notice in regard to the question of occupancy. I have already stated my impression that these houses were not used as constant dwelling- places, but rather as places of occasional resort I notice that, although the building seems complete and has had its floors laid and its doorways and windows conveniently and carefully arranged, the plastering of the interior is almost untouched, that vith the exception of three names scratched in the soft, thick coat of adobe by Mr. Jackson's party, there is almost no trace of the presence of man; yet this plaster may have been applied only shortly before the final desertion, and hence no definite conclusion can be drawn. A sketch of one of the door- ways is given in figure 2. The outline is accurately drawn, but there is a little too much regularity in the stonework. It will be seen that the aperture is of very nearly the same width above and below, which is rather unusual, since, in these ruins, as veil as in those farther south, the door- ways and windows are, as a niie, narrower at the top. This drawing also shows the manner of employing a number of small straight beams of wood as lintels, for the purpose, evideutly, of strengthening the masonry above. There are two of these exterior door- ways only, one opening into * ach story of the front room from the unoccupied part of the niche; these are shown in figure 3, a sketch of the interior of the front room taken from the side / . There is only a low wall between this room and the room c, while small door- ways communicate with the other apartments. There is a small rectangular window, 22 inches high by 30 wide, in the front wall, from which a fiue view can be had of the deep narrow valley below. Figure 4 is designed to show the extraordinary situation of these bouses. Whether viewed from below or from the heights above the effect is almost startling, and one cannot but feel that no ordinary circumstances could have driven a people to such places of resort. There are no ruins of importance in the caiion of the Mancos above the two- story house. Indistinct remains occur on the bottoms in a number of places, and a few small houses were observed in the cliffs. The most interesting of these is built upon a ledge about 40 feet above the trail, and is nearly midway between the two- story house and the head of the caiion. It does not differ in any essential point from the ruins already described. I shall therefore pass it by, in order to take * P two very interesting groups of ruins that occur about twenty miles to the northwest. Between the Mesa Verde and the Late Mountains, of which Ute peak * the culminating summit, there is a loug, deep valley or strip of low-w& that connects the great lowland of the Lower Maucos with the Q& wicut plain that rises toward the Dolores. The southern end of this ' kpiessed strip drains into the Mancos, the northern into the McElmo. Jfe latter stream heads along the north base of the Mesa Verde within jfre miles of the Mancos at the point where it enters the caiion, and flows westward, passiug along the north base of Ute Mountain, curving around to the southwest and reaching the San Juan nearly ten miles No. 1 2 |
