us. It is a bare, bleak spot, perhaps
a quarter of a mile long, and occupying the entire width of the mesa,
which here is not much broader. Beyond, the timber begins again, and in
the centre of the opening we see the fairly preserved ruins of an
abandoned Indian pueblo.

[Illustration: A Modern Pueblo]

There are still in places three stories visible. The walls are of evenly
broken parallelopipeds of very friable pumice-stone, and the village
forms the usual quadrangles. In the centre is a large square; and no
fewer than six depressions indicate that the Pueblos had at one time as
many as six circular subterranean estufas. In the ruins of the
dwellings over four hundred cells are still well defined, so that the
population of this communal village must formerly have reached as high
as one thousand souls. Over and through the ruins are scattered the
usual vestiges of primitive arts and industry,--pottery fragments and
arrow-heads. Seldom do we meet with a stone hammer, whereas
grinding-slabs and grinders are frequent, though for the most part
scattered and broken.

The spot is well selected for an abode of sedentary Indians. An
extensive view opens toward the east, north, and south. We see in the
east the mountains above Santa Fe, in the south the ranges at whose foot
lie the ruins of Hishi. In the north the high plateaus above the Rito
shut out a glimpse of the Puye, but a whitish streak in that direction
indicates the top line of the northern cliffs that overhang the Rito de
los Frijoles. Right and left of the village, not more than a hundred
yards from each side, begin the rugged declivities of the sides of the
potrero. If we want to go farther we can proceed to the west only, and
there we soon get into timber again.

A few steps within that timber, and we have before us a strange sight. A
wall of rudely piled stone slabs planted upright, flags laid upon them
crosswise, and smaller fragments piled against and between them, form a
pentagonal enclosure which at first sight reminds us of a diminutive
Stonehenge. There is an entrance to it from the southeast,--an open
corridor flanked by similar parapets. The enclosing wall is not more
than three feet high, and we easily peep into the interior.

Inside there are two statues carved out of the living rock. Although
much disfigured to-day they still show a plain resemblance to the
figures of two crouching panthers or pumas. They are life size; and the
animals seem to li