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Show 26 canons the ascent is more abrupt: the upper third of the escarpment being generally perpendicular, with the lower two- thirds composed of talus. Their summits and sides are usually clothed with a scrubby growth of pinon and juniper trees, increasing in density and size as we approach the divide on the north, while the valleys below sustain dense masses of sage- brush and greasewood, that, in some places, attain a height of from 10 to 12 feet. Vigorous, fresh- looking cotton woods line the main channels, and are as deceptive to the thirsty traveler as a mirage. One may travel for miles in the parched bed of the wash at their feet, while overhead their wide- spreading branches cast a grateful shade, and yet not be able to find a drop of water anywhere in their vicinity. West of the Montezuma two or three small tributaries of the Sau Juan head from the southern face of the Sierra Abajo, and then comes Epsom Greek, rising among the plateaus farther to the west- so called from the water in one portion of its bed having the effect and tasting like that salt. For a distance of some twenty- five miles above its month the valley of this creek presents upon its eastern side a remarkable wall, some 400 feet in height, inaccessible throughout its whole length with the exception of one place where the Indian* have made a way for themselves. It is caused by an immense fold in the sandstones, running north and south in a semicircular line, for some forty miles, and this valley has been eroded from that portion of it where the strata stood nearly perpendicular. On the west the beds sweep up in graceful curves to a nearly horizontal position, upon which isolated m6sas rise up above the general level in bold relief against the sky. The Bio San Juan drains all of this great interior basin, covering over twenty thousand square miles, as well as several great mountain masses bordering it nearly all around. It has at the mouth of the McElmo an average width of fifty yards, and a depth of from 4 to 6 feet; its current moving somewhat sluggishly in great sweeping curves that almost touch upon themselves again. The water is warm, and well freighted with the soil which it is continually undermiuing- a great contrast to the clear, ice- cold tributaries which give it existence. The bottoms are from three to five miles in width, and, bordering the stream, covered with dense growths of cottonwood and willows. The broad and fertile alluvial lands, well covered with grass, and the low sagebrush benches bordering them, will undoubtedly prove a rich agricultural possession at no distant day. Back of all, upon either hand, rise up the precipitous sandstoue bluffs, picturesque in outline and color, that gradually close down upon the river until it is ingulfed in the great canon commencing just below the mouth of the Bio DeChelly, and is then lost to all knowledge until it re- appears mingling its waters with those of the still more turbid and turbulent Colorado. South of the San Juan, the Bio De Chelly, coming in opposite the mouth of Epsom Creek, does not differ in its canon character from those of the north. The bordering plateau, however, is more massive and less cut up by side caiions. The same aridity prevails throughout nearly its whole length. Having thus superficially surveyed the region on which are to be found a vast number of prehistoric ruius, we will now return to the Hovenweep and examine, in such detail as our rapid reconnaissance will allow, the more prominent of the abundant remains. Startiug from the pueblo of the Hovenweep, described on page 30 of Bulletin No. 1, second series, we do not fiud in the immediate neighborhood any other ruins of importance; but a short distance down the |
