and mesas from the highlands of the northern border to the deep canyons
of the south where cluster the ruins of distinction.

This entry is delightful. The road crosses the northern boundary at the
base of a lofty butte known as Point Lookout, the park's highest
elevation. Encircling its eastern side and crossing the Morefield Canyon
the road perches for several miles upon the sinuous crest of a ridge
more than eight thousand feet in altitude, whose north side plunges
eighteen hundred feet into the broad Montezuma Valley, and whose gentle
southern slope holds the small beginnings of the great canyons of the
cliff-dwellers. Both north and south the panorama unfolds in impressive
grandeur, eloquent of the beautiful scanty land and of the difficult
conditions of living which confronted the sturdy builders whose ancient
masterpieces we are on our way to see. At the northern end of Chapin
Mesa we swing sharply south and follow its slope, presently entering the
warm, glowing, scented forests, through which we speed to the hotel-camp
perched upon a bluff overlooking the depths of Spruce Canyon.

Upon the top and under the eaves of this mesa are found very fine types
of prehistoric civilization. At Mummy Lake, half-way down the mesa, we
passed on the way a good example of pueblo architecture, and within an
easy walk of our terminal camp we find some of the noblest examples of
cliff-dwellings in existence. Here it was, near the head of this remote,
nearly inaccessible, canyon, guarded by nature's ramparts, that
aboriginal American genius before the coming of the Anglo-Saxon found
its culminating expression.

In this spirit the thoughtful American of to-day enters the Mesa Verde
National Park and examines its precious memorials.

III

Although the accident of the road brings the traveller first to the
mesa-top pueblos of the Mummy Lake district, historical sequence
suggests that examination begin with the cliff-dwellings.

Of the many examples of these remains in the park, Cliff Palace, Spruce
Tree House, and Balcony House are the most important because they
concisely and completely cover the range of life and the fulness of
development. This is not the place for detailed descriptions of these
ruins. The special publications of the National Park Service and
particularly the writings of Doctor J. Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian
Institution, who has devoted many years of brilliant investigation to
American prehistoric rema