Chapter III: Part 3

As a rule the cavate lodges are set back slightly from the face of the bluff and connected with it by a narrow passageway. Another type, however, and one not uncommon, has no connecting passageway, but instead opens out to the air by a cove or nook in the bluff. This cove was used as the main room and the back rooms opened into it in the usual way by passageways. A number of lodges of this type can be seen in the eastern side of the northern promontory or bluff. Possibly lodges of this type were walled in front, although walled fronts are here exceptional, and some of them at least have been produced by the falling off of the rock above the doorway. The expedient of walling up the front of a shallow cavity, commonly practiced in the San Juan region, while comparatively rare in this vicinity, was known to the dwellers in these cavate lodges. At several points remains of front walls can be seen, and in two instances front walls remain in place. The masonry, however, is in all cases very rough, of the same type as that shown in plate XXVIII.

In this connection a comparison with the cavate ledges found in other regions will be of interest. In 1875 Mr. W. H. Holmes, then connected with the Hayden survey, visited a number of cavate lodges on the Rio San Juan and some of its tributaries. Several groups are illustrated in his report.[5] Two of his illustrations, showing, respectively, the open front and walled front lodges, are reproduced in plates XXIX and XXX. The open front lodges are thus described:

I observed, in approaching from above, that a ruined tower stood
near the brink of the cliff, at a point where it curves outward
toward the river, and in studying it with my glass detected a number
of cave-like openings in the cliff face about halfway up. On
examination, I found them to have been shaped by the hand of man,
but so weathered out and changed by the slow process of atmospheric
erosion that the evidences of art were almost obliterated.

The openings are arched irregularly above, and generally quite
shallow, being governed very much in contour and depth by the
quality of the rock. The work of excavation has not been an
extremely great one, even with the imperfect implements that must
have been used, as the shale is for the most part soft and friable.

A hard stratum served as a floor, and projecting in many places made
a narrow platform by which the inhabitants were enabled to pass
along from one house to another.

Small fragments of mortar still adhered to the firmer parts of the
walls, from which it is inferred that they were at one time
plastered. It is also extremely probable that they were walled up in
front and furnished with doors and windows, yet no fragment of wall
has been preserved. Indeed, so great has been the erosion that many
of the caves have been almost obliterated, and are now not deep
enough to give shelter to a bird or bat.

[Footnote 5: Tenth Ann Rep. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1876, pp. 288-391.]

Walled fronts, the author states, were observed frequently on the Rio Mancos, where there are many well-preserved specimens. He described a large group situated on that stream, about 10 miles above its mouth, as follows:

The walls were in many places quite well preserved and new looking,
while all about, high and low, were others in all stages of decay.
In one place in particular, a picturesque outstanding promontory has
been full of dwellings, literally honeycombed by this
earth-burrowing race, and as one from below views the ragged,
window-pierced crags [see plate XXX] he is unconsciously led to
wonder if they are not the ruins of some ancient castle, behind
whose moldering walls are hidden the dread secrets of a
long-forgotten people; but a nearer approach quickly dispels such
fancies, for the windows prove to be only the doorways to shallow
and irregular apartments, hardly sufficiently commodious for a race
of pigmies. Neither the outer openings nor the apertures that
communicate between the caves are large enough to allow a person of
large stature to pass, and one is led to suspect that these nests
were not the dwellings proper of these people, but occasional
resorts for women and children, and that the somewhat extensive
ruins in the valley below were their ordinary dwelling places.

It will be noticed that in both these cases there are associated ruins on the mesa top above, and in both instances these associated ruins are subordinate to the cavate lodges, in this respect resembling the lodges on the Verde already described. This condition, however, is not the usual one; in the great majority of cases the cavate lodges are subordinate to the associated ruins, standing to them in the relation of outlying agricultural shelters. Unless this fact is constantly borne in mind it is easy to exaggerate the importance of the cavate lodges as compared with the village ruins with which they are connected.

The cavate lodges near San Francisco mountain in Arizona were visited in 1883 by Col. James Stevenson, of the Bureau of Ethnology, and in 1885 by Maj. J. W. Powell. Major Powell[6] describes a number of groups in the vicinity of Flagstaff. Of one group, situated on a cinder cone about 12 miles east of San Francisco peak, he says:

Here the cinders are soft and friable, and the cone is a prettily
shaped dome. On the southern slope there are excavations into the
indurated and coherent cinder mass, constituting chambers, often 10
or 12 feet in diameter and 6 to 10 feet in height. The chambers are
of irregular shape, and occasionally a larger central chamber forms
a kind of vestibule to several smaller ones gathered about it. The
smaller chambers are sometimes at the same altitude as the central
or principal one, and sometimes at a lower altitude. About one
hundred and fifty of these chambers have been excavated. Most of
them are now partly filled by the caving in of the walls and
ceilings, but some of them are yet in a good state of preservation.
In these chambers, and about them on the summit and sides of the
cinder cone, many stone implements were found, especially metates.
Some bone implements also were discovered. At the very summit of the
little cone there is a plaza, inclosed by a rude wall made of
volcanic cinders, the floor of which was carefully leveled. The
plaza is about 45 by 75 feet in area. Here the people lived in
underground houses--chambers hewn from the friable volcanic cinders.
Before them, to the south, west, and north, stretched beautiful
valleys, beyond which volcanic cones are seen rising amid pine
forests. The people probably cultivated patches of ground in the low
valleys.

About 18 miles still farther to the east of San Francisco mountain,
another ruined village was discovered, built about the crater of a
volcanic cone. This volcanic peak is of much greater magnitude. The
crater opens to the eastward. On the south many stone dwellings have
been built of the basaltic and cinder-like rooks. Between the ridge
on the south and another on the northwest there is a low saddle in
which other buildings have been erected, and in which a great plaza
was found, much like the one previously described. But the most
interesting part of this village was on the cliff which rose on the
northwest side of the crater. In this cliff are many natural caves,
and the caves themselves were utilized as dwellings by inclosing
them in front with walls made of volcanic rocks and cinders. These
cliff dwellings are placed tier above tier, in a very irregular way.
In many cases natural caves were thus utilized; in other cases
cavate chambers were made; that is, chambers have been excavated in
the friable cinders. On the very summit of the ridge stone buildings
were erected, so that this village was in part a cliff village,
in part cavate, and in part the ordinary stone pueblo. The valley
below, especially to the southward, was probably occupied by their
gardens. In the chambers among the overhanging cliffs a great many
interesting relics were found, of stone, bone, and wood, and many
potsherds.

[Footnote 6: Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., 1891, p. xix.]

It will be seen that the first group described bears a remarkably close resemblance to the cavate lodges on the Rio Verde. The lodges themselves are smaller, but the arrangement of main apartment and attached back rooms is quite similar. It will be noticed also that in the second group described village ruins are again associated on the summit of the cliff or ridge. Major Powell ascertained that these cavate lodges were occupied by the Havasupai Indians now living in Cataract canyon, who are closely related to the Walapai, and who, it is said, were driven from this region by the Spaniards.

The cavate lodges on the Rio Grande, in New Mexico, in the vicinity of the modern pueblo of Santa Clara, were also visited in 1885 by Major Powell and are thus described by him:[7]

The cliffs themselves are built of volcanic sands and ashes, and
many of the strata are exceedingly light and friable. The specific
gravity of some of these rocks is so low that they will float on
water. Into the faces of these cliffs, in the friable and easily
worked rock, many chambers have been excavated; for mile after mile
the cliffs are studded with them, so that altogether there are many
thousands. Sometimes a chamber or series of chambers is entered from
a terrace, but usually they were excavated many feet above any
landing or terrace below, so that they could be reached only by
ladders. In other places artificial terraces were built by
constructing retaining walls and filling the interior next to the
cliffs with loose rock and sand. Very often steps were cut into the
face of a cliff and a rude stairway formed by which chambers could
be reached. The chambers were very irregularly arranged and very
irregular in size and structure. In many cases there is a central
chamber, which seems to have been a general living room for the
people, back of which two, three, or more chambers somewhat smaller
are found. The chambers occupied by one family are sometimes
connected with those occupied by another family, so that two or
three or four sets of chambers have interior communication. Usually,
however, the communication from one system of chambers to another
was by the outside. Many of the chambers had evidently been occupied
as dwellings. They still contained fireplaces and evidences of fire;
there were little caverns or shelves in which various vessels were
placed, and many evidences of the handicraft of the people were left
in stone, bone, horn, and wood, and in the chambers and about the
sides of the cliffs potsherds are abundant. On more careful survey
it was found that many chambers had been used as stables for asses,
goats, and sheep. Sometimes they had been filled a few inches, or
even 2 or 3 feet, with the excrement of these animals. Ears of corn
and corncobs were also found in many places. Some of the chambers
were evidently constructed to be used as storehouses or caches for
grain. Altogether it is very evident that the cliff houses have been
used in comparatively modern times; at any rate, since the people
owned asses, goats, and sheep. The rock is of such a friable nature
that it will not stand atmospheric degradation very long, and there
is abundant evidence of this character testifying to the recent
occupancy of these cavate dwellings.

Above the cliffs, on the mesas, which have already been described,
evidences of more ancient ruins were found. These were pueblos built
of cut stone rudely dressed. Every mesa had at least one ancient
pueblo up off it, evidently far more ancient than the cavate
dwellings found in the face of the cliffs. It is, then, very plain
that the cavate dwellings are not of great age; that they have been
occupied since the advent of the white man, and that on the summit
of the cliffs there are ruins of more ancient pueblos.

[Footnote 7: Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Eth., op. cit., p. XXII.]

Major Powell obtained a tradition of the Santa Clara Indians, reciting three successive periods of occupancy of the cavate lodges by them, the last occurring after the Spanish conquest of New Mexico in the seventeenth century.

It will be noticed that here again the cavate lodges and village ruins are associated, although in this case the village ruins on the mesas above are said to be more ancient than the cavate lodges. A general view of a small section of cliff containing lodges is given in plate XXXI for comparison with those on the Verde. The lodges on the Rio Grande seem to have been more elaborate than those on the Verde, perhaps owing to longer occupancy; but the same arrangement of a main front room and attached back rooms, as in the cavate lodges on the Verde, was found.

As the cavate lodges of the San Francisco mountain region have been assigned to the Havasupai Indians of the Yuman stock, and those of the Rio Grande to the Santa Clara pueblo Indians of the Tanoan stock, it may be of interest to state that there is a vague tradition extant among the modern settlers of the Verde region that the cavate lodges of that region were occupied within the last three generations. This tradition was derived from an old Walapai Indian whose grandfather was alive when the cavate lodges were occupied. It was impossible to follow this tradition to its source, and it is introduced only as a suggestion. Attention is called, however, to the tradition given in the introduction to this paper with which it may be connected.

Aside from the actual labor of excavation, there was but little work expended on the Verde cavate lodges. The interiors were never plastered, so far as the writer could determine. Figure 291 shows the plan of one of the principal sets of rooms, which occurs at the point marked _D_ on the map, plate XXV; and plate XXXII is an interior view of the principal room, drawn from a flashlight photograph. This set of rooms was excavated in a point of the cliff and extends completely through it as shown on the general plan, plate XXV. The entrance was from the west by a short passageway opening into a cove extending back some 10 feet from the face of the cliff. The first room entered measures 16 feet in length by 10 feet in width. On the floor of this room a structure resembling the piki or paper bread oven of the Tusayan Indians, was found constructed partly of fragments of old and broken metates. At the southern end of the room there is a cubby-hole about a foot in diameter, excavated at the floor level. At the eastern end of the room there is a passageway about 2½ feet long leading into a smaller roughly circular room, measuring 7½ feet in its longest diameter, and this in turn is connected with another almost circular room of the same size. The floors of all three of these rooms are on the same level, but the roofs of the two smaller rooms are a foot lower than that of the entrance room. At the northern end of the entrance room there is a passageway 3 feet long and 2½ feet wide leading into the principal room of the set. This passageway at its southern end has a framed doorway of the type illustrated later.

The main room is roughly circular in form, measuring 16 feet in its north and south diameter and 15 feet from east to west. The roof is about 7 feet above the floor. Figure 292 shows a section from northwest to southwest (_a_, _b_, figure 291) through the small connected room adjoining on the south, and also an east arid west section (_c_, _d_, figure 291). The floor is plastered with clay wherever it was necessary in order to bring it to a level, and the coating is consequently not of uniform thickness. It is divided into sections by low ridges of clay as shown in the plan and sections; the northern section is a few inches higher than the other. Extending through the clay finish of the floor and into the rock beneath there are four pits, indicated on the plan by round spots. The largest of these, situated opposite the northern door, was a fire hole or pit about 18 inches in diameter at the floor level, of an inverted conical shape, about 10 inches in depth, and plastered inside with clay inlaid with fragments of pottery placed as closely together as their shape would permit. The other pits are smaller; one located near the southeastern corner of the room is about 6 inches in diameter and the same in depth, while the others are mere depressions in the floor, in shape like the small paint mortars used by the Pueblos.

The room, when opened, contained a deposit of bat dung and sand about 3 feet thick in the center and averaging about 2 feet thick throughout the room. This deposit exhibited a series of well-defined strata, varying from three-fourths to an inch and a half thick, caused by the respective predominance of dung or sand. No evidence of disturbance of these strata was found although careful examination was made. This deposit was cleared out and a number of small articles were found, all resting, however, directly on the floor. The articles consisted of fragments of basketry, bundles of fibers and pieces of fabrics, pieces of arrowshafts, fragments of grinding stones, three sandals of woven yucca fiber, two of them new and nearly perfect, and a number of pieces of cotton cloth, the latter scattered over the room and in several instances gummed to the floor. Only a few fragments of pottery were found in the main room, but outside in the northern passageway were the fragments of two large pieces, one an olla, the other a bowl, both buried in 3 or 4 inches of debris under a large slab fallen from the roof.

Owing to its situation this room was one of the most desirable in the whole group. The prevailing south wind blows through it at all times, and this is doubtless the reason that it was so much filled up with sand. In the center of the room the roof has fallen at a comparatively recent date from an area about 10 by 7 feet, in slabs about an inch thick, for the fragments were within 6 inches of the top of the debris. The walls are smoke-blackened to a very slight extent compared with the large room south of it.

At the northeastern and southwestern corners there are two small pockets, opening on the floor level but sunk below it, which seem to have been designed to contain water. That in the southwest corner is the larger; it is illustrated in the section, figure 293. As shown in the section and on the plan (figure 291), a low wall composed of adobe mortar and broken rock was built across the opening on the edge of the floor, perhaps to increase its capacity. This cavity would hold 15 to 20 gallons of water, a sufficient amount to supply the needs of an ordinary Indian family for three weeks or a mouth. The pocket in the northeastern corner of the room is not quite so large as the one described, and its front is not walled.

West of the main room there is a storage room, nearly circular in shape, with a diameter of about 6 feet and with a floor raised about 2 feet above that of the main room. Its roof is but 3 feet above the floor, and across its western end is a low bench a couple of inches above the floor. In the northeastern corner there is a shallow cove, also raised slightly above the main floor and connecting by a narrow opening with the outer vestibule-like rooms on the north. These northern rooms of the lodge seem to be simply enlargements of the passageway. The northern opening is a window rather than a door as it is about 10 feet above the ground and therefore could be entered only by a ladder. The opening is cut in the back of a cove in the cliff, and is 6 feet from the northern end of the main room. At half its length it has been enlarged on both sides by the excavation of niches or coves about 4 feet deep but only 2½ feet high. These coves could be used only for storage on a small scale.

In the southeastern corner of the main room there is another opening leading into a low-roofed storage cist, approximating 4 feet in diameter, and this cist was in turn connected with the middle one of the three rooms first described. This opening, at the time the room was examined, was so carefully sealed and plastered that it was scarcely perceptible.

A different arrangement of rooms is shown in plan in figure 294 and in section in figure 295. This group occurs at the point marked A on the map. The entrance to the main room was through a narrow passage, 3 feet long, leading into the chamber from the face of the bluff, which at this point is vertical. The main room is oblong, measuring 17 feet one way and 10 the other. At the southern end there is a small cist and on the western side near the entrance there is another hardly a foot in diameter. North of the main room there is a small, roughly circular room with a diameter of about 6 feet. It is connected with the main room by a passage about 2 feet long. On the floor of the main room there are two low ridges of clay, similar to those already described, which divide it into three sections of nearly equal size.

East of the main room there is another of considerable size in the form of a bay or cove. It measures 13 feet by 6 feet, and its floor is 20 inches higher than that of the main room, as shown in the section (figure 295). Attached to this bay, at its northern end, is a small cist about 3 feet in diameter, and with its floor sunk to the level of the floor of the main room. East of the cove there is another cist about 4½ feet in diameter and with its floor on the level of the cove. Adjoining it on the south and leading out from the southeastern corner of the cove or bay, there is a long passage leading into an almost circular room 9 feet in diameter. The back wall of this room is 33 feet from the face of the cliff. The passage leading into it is 6 feet long, 2½ feet wide at the doorways, bulging slightly in the center, and its floor is on the same level as the rooms it connects; its eastern end is defined by a ridge of clay about 6 inches high.

In the eastern side of the circular room last described there is a storage cist about 3 feet wide and 2 feet deep. No fire-pit was seen in this cluster, although if the principal apartment were carefully cleaned out it is not improbable that one might be found.

A cluster of rooms somewhat resembling the last described is shown in plan in figure 296. This cluster occurs at the point marked _B_ on the map. The main room is set back 5½ feet from the face of the bluff, which is vertical at this point, and is oblong in shape, measuring 19½ by 11½ feet. Its roof is 7½ feet above the floor in the center of the room. Attached to its southern end by a passage only a foot in length is a small room or storage cist about 5 feet in diameter. At its northeastern corner there is another room or cist similar in shape, about 7 feet in diameter, and reached by a passage 2 feet long. This small room is also connected with a long room east of the main apartment by a passage, the southern end of which was carefully sealed up and plastered, making a kind of niche of the northern end. At the southeastern corner of the room there is a small niche about 2 feet in diameter on the level of the floor.

The eastern side of the main room is not closed, but opens directly into an oblong chamber of irregular size with the roof nearly 2 feet lower and the floor a foot higher than the main room. This step in the floor is shown by the line between the rooms on the ground plan. The second room is about 6 feet wide and 20 feet long, its southern end rounding out slightly so as to form an almost circular chamber. Near the center of its eastern side there is a passageway 2½ feet long leading into a circular chamber 10½ feet in diameter and with its floor on the same level as the room to which it is attached. The back wall of this room is 35½ feet from the face of the cliff.

A group occurring at the point marked _E_ on the map (plate XXV) is shown in plan in figure 297. It is located in a projecting corner of the bluff and marks the eastern limit of the cavate lodges at this end of the canyon. The group consists of five rooms, and has the distinction of extending four rooms deep into the rock. The main room is set back about 13 feet from the face of the bluff, about 7 feet of this distance being occupied by a narrow passageway and the remainder by a cove. The depth from the face of the bluff to the back of the innermost chamber is 47 feet. The main room measures 16 feet in length and 11 feet in width, and its roof is less than 7 feet high in the center. Near its center and opposite the long passageway mentioned there is a fire-pit nearly 3 feet in diameter.

At the northeastern corner of the main room there is a wide opening leading into a room measuring 8 by 7 feet, with a floor raised 2 feet above that of the principal apartment. The roof of this chamber is but 4½ feet above the floor. Almost the whole eastern side of this room is occupied by a wide opening leading into another room of approximately the same size and shape. The roof of this room is only 3 feet 10 inches above the floor, and the floor is raised 6 inches above that on the west. In the northeastern corner there is a short narrow passageway leading into a small circular room, the fourth of the series, having a diameter of 4 feet. The roof of this apartment is only 3 feet above the floor.

In the southeastern corner of the main room there is a narrow passageway leading into a circular chamber about 8 feet in diameter. This chamber is connected with the second room of the series described by a passageway about 2 feet long, which opens into the southeastern corner of that room. This passageway, at its northern end, is 1½ feet below the room into which it opens. One of the most noticeable features about this group of rooms is the entire absence of the little nooks and pockets in the wall which are characteristic of these lodges, and which are very numerous in all the principal groups, noticeably in the group next described.

At the point marked _C_ on the map there is an elaborate group of chambers, consisting of two groups joined together and comprising altogether eight rooms. This is shown in plan in figure 298. The rock composing the front of the main room of the southern group has recently fallen, making a pile of debris about 4 feet high. The room originally measured about 12 by 22 feet. Its eastern side is occupied by a passageway leading into an adjoining chamber and by two shallow, roughly semicircular coves, apparently the remains of former small rooms. Along the northern wall of the room there are two little nooks at the floor level, and along the southern wall there are four, one of them (shown on the plan) being dug out like a pit. The roof of the room was about 6 feet above the floor.

The passageway near the eastern side is 4½ feet long, and is 3½ feet wide--an unusual width. It opens into a roughly circular room, 8 feet in diameter, but with a roof only 3½ feet above the floor. Along the northeastern side of this room, there are three small pockets opening on the floor level. On the southern side of the room there is a wide opening into a small attached room, roughly oblong in shape and measuring about 6½ by 4½ feet. Along the southern wall of this little room there are two small pockets, and at the southwestern corner the rock has been cleared out to form a low cavity in the shape of a half dome. In the northwestern corner of the room there is another wide passage to a small room attached to the main room. This passage is now carefully sealed on its southern side with a slab of stone, plastered neatly so as to be hardly perceptible from the southern side. The room into which this passage opens on the north is attached to the northeastern corner of the main apartment by a narrow passage, 1½ feet wide and a foot long. It is roughly circular in shape, about 6 feet in diameter, and is the only chamber in the southern group which has no pockets or cubby-holes. Of these pockets there are no fewer than twelve in the southern group. Near the northern corner of the main room there is a doorway leading into a cove, which in turn opens into the main room of the northern group.

The main room of the northern group is setback about 9 feet from the face of the bluff, but is entered by a passageway about 3 feet long, the remainder of the distance consisting of a cove in the cliff. The room is 22 feet long and 13 feet wide and its roof is 6½ feet above the floor. In the southwestern corner there is a small pocket in the wall, and in the northwestern corner two others, all on the floor level. In the eastern side, however, there is a cubby-hole nearly 2 feet in diameter and about 2 feet above the floor. This is a rare feature. The southern end of the room opens into a kind of cove, raised 2 feet above the floor of the main room, and opening at its southern end into the main room of the southern group. In the floor of this cove there is a circular pit about 18 inches in diameter (marked in the plan, figure 298). Although resembling the fire holes already described, the position of the pit under consideration precludes use for that purpose; it was probably designed to contain water. At the northeastern corner of the principal apartment there is an oblong chamber or storage cist, measuring 6 feet by 7 feet.

Connected with the main room by a passageway 2 feet long cut in its eastern wall, there is an almost circular chamber 7 feet in diameter, and this in turn connects with another chamber beyond it by a passageway 2½ feet long and less than 2 feet wide. The roofs of the two chambers last mentioned are but 4½ and 4 feet, respectively, above the floor, and in none of the rooms of this group, except the main apartment, are pockets or niches found. The whole group extends back about 45 feet into the bluff.

BOWLDER-MARKED SITES.

Within the limits of the region here treated there are many hundreds of sites of structures and groups of rooms now marked only by lines of water-rounded bowlders. As a rule each site was occupied by only one or two rooms, although sometimes the settlement rose to the dignity of a village of considerable size. The rooms were nearly always oblong, similar in size and ground plan to the rooms composing the village ruins already described, but differing in two essential points, viz, character of site and character of the masonry. As a rule these remains are found on and generally near the edge of a low mesa or hill overlooking some area of tillable land, but they are by no means confined to such locations, being often found directly on the bottom land, still more frequently on the banks of dry washes at the points where they emerge from the hills, and sometimes on little islands or raised areas within the wash where every spring they must have been threatened with overflow or perhaps even overflowed. An examination of many sites leads to the conclusion that permanency was not an element of much weight in their selection.

Externally these bowlder-marked sites have every appearance of great antiquity, but all the evidence obtainable in regard to them indicates that they were connected with and inhabited at the same time as the other ruins in the region in which they are found. They are so much obliterated now, however, that a careful examination fails to determine in some cases whether the site in question was or was not occupied by a room or group of rooms, and there is a notable dearth of pottery fragments such as are so abundant in the ruins already described. Excavation in a large ruin of this type, however, conducted by some ranchmen living just above Limestone creek, yielded a considerable lot of pottery, not differing in kind from the fragments found in stone ruins so far as can be judged from description alone.

In the southern part of the region here treated bowlder-marked sites are more clearly marked and more easily distinguished than in the northern part, partly perhaps because in that section the normal ground surface is smoother than in the northern section and affords a greater contrast with the site itself. Plate XXXIII shows one of these bowlder-marked sites which occurs a little below Limestone creek, on the opposite or eastern side of the river. It is typical of many in that district. It will be noticed that the bowlders are but slightly sunk into the soil, and that the surface of the ground has been so slightly disturbed that it is practically level; there is not enough débris on the ground to raise the walls 2 feet. The illustration shows, in the middle distance, a considerable area of bottom land which the site overlooks. In plan this site shows a number of oblong rectangular rooms, the longer axes of which are not always parallel, the plan resembling very closely the smaller stone village ruins already described. It is probable that the lack of parallelism in the longer axes of the rooms is due to the same cause as in the village ruins, i.e., to the fact that the site was not all built up at one time.

The illustration represents only a part of an extensive series of wall remains. The series commences at the northern end of a mesa forming the eastern boundary of the Rio Verde and a little below a point opposite the mouth of Limestone creek. The ruins occur along the western rim of the mesa, overlooking the river and the bottom lands on the other side, and are now marked only by bowlders and a slight rise in the ground. But few lines of wall are visible, most of the ruins consisting only of a few bowlders scattered without system. From the northern end of the mesa, where the ruins commence, traces of walls can be seen extending due southward and at an angle of about 10° with the mesa edge for a distance of one-fourth of a mile. Beyond this, for half a mile or more southward, remains of single houses and small clusters occur, and these are found in less abundance to the southern edge of the mesa, where the ruin illustrated occurs. The settlement extended some distance east of the part illustrated, and also southward on the slope of the hill. Two well-marked lines of wall occur at the foot of the hill, on the flat bottom land, but the slopes of the hill are covered with bowlders and show no well-defined lines. Scattered about on the surface of the ground are some fragments of metates of coarse black basalt and some potsherds, but the latter are not abundant.

The bowlders which now mark these sites were probably obtained in the immediate vicinity of the points where they were used. The mesa on which the ruin occurs is a river terrace, constructed partly of these bowlders; they outcrop occasionally on its surface and show clearly in its sloping sides, and the washes that carry off the water falling on its surface are full of them.

In the northern end of the settlement there are faint traces of what may have been an irrigating ditch, but the topography is such that water could not be brought on top of the mesa from the river itself. At the southern end of the settlement, northeast of the point shown in the illustration, there are traces of a structure that may have been a storage reservoir. The surface of the mesa dips slightly southward, and the reservoir-like structure is placed at a point just above the head of a large wash, where a considerable part of the water that falls upon the surface of the mesa could be caught. It is possible that, commencing at the northern end of the settlement, a ditch extended completely through it, terminating in the storage reservoir at the southern end, and that this ditch was used to collect the surface water and was not connected with the river. A method of irrigation similar to this is practiced today by some of the Pueblo Indians, notably by the Hopi or Tusayan and by the Zuni. In the bottom land immediately south of the mesa, now occupied by several American families, there is a fine example of an aboriginal ditch, described later.

In the vicinity of the large ruin just above Limestone creek, previously described, the bowlder-marked sites are especially abundant. In the immediate vicinity of that ruin there are ten or more of them, and they are abundant all along the edge of the mesa forming the upper river terrace; in fact, they are found in every valley and on every point of mesa overlooking a valley containing tillable land.

It is probable that the bowlder-marked ruins are the sites of secondary and temporary structures, erected for convenience in working fields near to or overlooked by them and distant from the home pueblo. The character of the sites occupied by them and the plan of the structures themselves supports this hypothesis. That they were connected with the permanent stone villages is evident from their comparative abundance about each of the larger ones, and that they were constructed in a less substantial manner than the home pueblo is shown by the character of the remains.

It seems quite likely that only the lower course or courses of the walls of these dwellings were of bowlders, the superstructure being perhaps sometimes of earth (not adobe) but more probably often of the type known as “jacal”--upright slabs of wood plastered with mud. This method of construction was known to the ancient pueblo peoples and is used today to a considerable extent by the Mexican population of the southwest and to a less extent in some of the pueblos. No traces of this construction were found in the bowlder-marked sites, perhaps because no excavation was carried on; but it is evident that the rooms were not built of stone, and that not more than a small percentage could have been built of rammed earth or grout, as the latter, in disintegrating leaves well-defined mounds and lines of debris. It is improbable, moreover, that the structures were of brush plastered with mud, such as the Navajo hogan, as this method of construction is not well adapted to a rectangular ground plan, and if persistently applied would soon modify such a plan to a round or partially rounded one. Temporary brush structures would not require stone foundations, but structures composed of upright posts or slabs, filled in with brush and plastered with mud, and designed to last more than one farming season, would probably be placed on stone foundations, as the soil throughout most of the region in which these remains occur is very light, and a wooden structure placed directly on it would hardly survive a winter.

In the valley of the Rio Verde the profitable use of adobe at the present time is approximately limited northward by the thirty-fourth parallel, which crosses the valley a little below the mouth of Limestone creek. North of this latitude adobe is used less and less and where used requires more and more attention to keep in order, although on the high tablelands some distance farther northward it is again a suitable construction. South of the thirty-fourth parallel, however, adobe construction is well suited to the climate and in the valleys of Salt and Gila rivers it is the standard construction. Adobe construction (the use of sun-dried molded brick) was unknown to the ancient pueblo builders, but its aboriginal counterpart, rammed earth or pisé construction, such as that of the well known Casa Grande ruin on Gila river, acted in much the same way under climatic influences, and it is probable that its lack of suitability precluded its use in the greater part of the Verde valley. No walls of the type of those of the Casa Grande ruin have been found in the valley of the Verde, although abundant in the valleys of the Salt and Gila rivers, but it is possible that this method of construction was used in the southern part of the Verde region for temporary structures; in the northern part of that region its use even for that purpose was not practicable.

In this connection it should be noted that all the ruins herein described are of buildings of the northern type of aboriginal pueblo architecture and seem to be connected with the north rather than the south.

IRRIGATING DITCHES AND HORTICULTURAL WORKS.

One of the finest examples of an aboriginal irrigating ditch that has come under the writer’s notice occurs about 2 miles below the mouth of Limestone creek, on the opposite or eastern side of the river. At this point there is a large area of fertile bottom land, now occupied by some half dozen ranches, known locally as the Lower Verde settlement. The ditch extends across the northern and western part of this area. Plate XXXIV shows a portion of this ditch at a point about one eighth of a mile east of the river. Here the ditch is marked by a very shallow trough in the grass-covered bottom, bounded on either side by a low ridge of earth and pebbles. Plate XXXV shows the same ditch at a point about one-eighth of a mile above the last, where it was necessary to cut through a low ridge. North of this point the ditch can not be traced, but here it is about 40 feet above the river and about 10 feet above a modern (American) ditch. It is probable that the water was taken out of the river about 2 miles above this place, but the ditch was run on the sloping side of the mesa which has been recently washed out. No traces of the ditch were found east of the point shown in plate XXXIV, but as the modern acequia, which enters the valley nearly 10 feet below the ancient one, extends up the valley nearly to its head, there is no reason to suppose that the ancient ditch did not irrigate nearly the whole area of bottom land. The ancient ditch is well marked by two clearly defined lines of pebbles and small bowlders, as shown in the illustration. Probably these pebbles entered into its construction, as the modern ditch, washed out at its head and abandoned more than a year ago, shows no trace, of a similar marking.

A little west and south of the point shown in plate XXXIV the bottom land drops off by a low bench of 3 or 4 feet to a lower level or terrace, and this edge is marked for a distance of about a quarter of a mile by the remains of a stone wall or other analogous structure. This is located on the extreme edge of the upper bench and it is marked on its higher side by a very small elevation. On the outer or lower side it is more clearly visible, as the stones of which the wall was composed are scattered over the slope marking the edge of the upper bench. At irregular intervals along the wall there are distinct rectangular areas about the size of an ordinary pueblo room, i.e., about 8 by 10 and 10 by 12 feet.

In February, 1891, there was an exceptional flood in Verde river due to prolonged hard rain. The river in some places rose nearly 20 feet, and at many points washed away its banks and changed the channel. The river rose on two occasions; during its first rise it cut away a considerable section of the bank near a point known as Spanish wash, about 3½ miles below Verde, exposing an ancient ditch. During its second rise it cut away still more of the bank and part of the ancient ditch exposed a few days before. The river here makes a sharp bend and flows a little north of east. The modern American ditch, which supplied all the bottom lands of the Verde west of the river, was ruined in this vicinity by the flood that uncovered the old ditch. Figure 299 is a map of the ancient ditch drawn in the field, with contours a foot apart, and showing also a section, on a somewhat larger scale, drawn through the points _A_, _B_ on the map. Plate XXXVI is a view of the ditch looking westward across the point where it has been washed away, and plate XXXVII shows the eastern portion, where the ditch disappears under the bluff.

The bank of the river at this point consists of a low sandy beach, from 10 to 50 feet wide, limited on the south by a vertical bluff 10 to 12 feet high and composed of sandy alluvial soil. This bluff is the edge of the bottom land before referred to, and on top is almost flat and covered with a growth of mesquite, some of the trees reaching a diameter of more than 3 inches. The American ditch, which is shown on the map, runs along the top of the bluff skirting its edge, and is about 14 feet above the river at its ordinary stage. The edge of the bluff is shown on the map by a heavy black line. It will be observed that the ancient ditch occurs on the lower flat, about 3 feet above the river at its ordinary stage, and its remains extend over nearly 500 feet. The line, however, is not a straight one, but has several decided bends. One of these occurs at a point just west of that shown in the section. About 80 feet east of that point the ditch makes another turn southward, and about 40 feet beyond strikes the face of the bluff almost at right angles and passes under it.

About 50 feet north of the main ditch, at the point where it passes under the bluff, there are the remains of another ditch, as shown on the map. This second ditch was about a foot higher than the main structure, or about 4 feet above the river; it runs nearly parallel with it for 30 feet and then passes into the bluff with a slight turn toward the north. It is about the same size as the main ditch, but its section is more evenly rounded. Figure 300 shows this ditch in section.

As already stated, the American ditch is about 14 feet above the river, while the ancient ditch is less than 4 feet above the water. This decided difference in level indicates a marked difference in the character of the river. The destruction of the modern ditch by the flood of 1891 is not the first mishap of that kind which has befallen the settlers. The ditch immediately preceding the current one passed nearly over the center of the ancient ditch, then covered by 10 feet or more of alluvial soil, and if a ditch were placed today on the level of the ancient structure it would certainly be destroyed every spring. The water that flowed through the modern ditch was taken from the river at a point about 3 miles farther northward, or just below Verde. The water for the ancient ditch must have been taken out less than a mile above the southern end of the section shown in the map.

At first sight it would appear that the ancient ditch antedated the deposit of alluvial soil forming the bottom land at this point, and this hypothesis is supported by several facts of importance. It is said that ten years ago the bottom land, whose edge now forms the bluff referred to, extended some 25 or 30 feet farther out, and that the river then flowed in a channel some 200 or 300 feet north of the present one. Be this as it may, the bottom land now presents a fairly continuous surface, from the banks of the river to the foothills that limit the valley on the west and south, and it is certain that this bottom land extended over the place occupied by the ancient ditch; nor is it to be supposed that the ancient ditches ended abruptly at the point where they now enter the bluff. The curves in the line of the ancient ditch might indicate that it was constructed along the slope of a hill, or on an uneven surface, as a deep excavation in fairly even ground would naturally be made in a straight line.

The face of the bluff shows an even deposit of sand, without apparent stratification, except here and there a thin layer or facing of mud occurs, such as covers the bottom of the ancient ditch and also of the modern ditch. Singularly enough, however, over the ancient ditch, about 5 feet above its bottom, there is a stratum of sand and gravel, and on top, within a few inches of the surface of the ground, a thin stratum of mud. This mud stratum extends only about 8 feet horizontally and is slightly hollowed, with its lowest part over the center of the ditch. The gravel stratum also was laid down over the ditch, is tilted slightly southward and occurs in two layers, together about a foot thick. It first appears a few feet south of the point where the main ditch enters the bluff and over the ditch both layers are distinctly marked, as shown in plate XXXVIII. Both layers are clearly marked to a distance of 4 feet north of the northern side of the main ditch; here the lower layer thins out, but the upper layer continues faintly marked almost to the edge of the small ditch. At this point the gravel stratum becomes pronounced again and continues over the small ditch, almost pure gravel in places, with a decided dip westward. At a point just beyond the northern side of the small ditch the gravel layer disappears entirely.

The occurrence of this gravel in the way described seems to indicate that the ditch was built along the slope of a low hill forming the edge of the bottom land at that time, and that subsequently detritus was deposited above it and over the adjacent bottom land forming a smooth ground surface. Against this hypothesis it must be stated that no evidence whatever was found of more than a single deposit of sandy loam, although the exposures are good; but perhaps were an examination made by a competent geologist some such evidence might be developed.