rn side of the elevation (plate CIX). If, as I suspect,
these parallel walls extend to the heart of the mounds, the greatest
elevation of the former buildings must have been four stories. It
would likewise seem probable that the town was more or less pyramidal,
with the highest point somewhat back from the one- or two-story walls
at the edge of the cliff, a style of architecture still preserved in
Walpi. The loftiest wall, which was followed down to the floor, was 15
feet high, but as that was measured over 20 feet below the apex of the
mound, it would seem that, from a distance, there would be a wall 30
feet high in the center of the mound. Even counting 7 feet as the
height of each story we would have four stories above the foundation,
and this, I believe, was the height of the old pueblo. But probably
the wall did not rise to this height at the edge of the mesa, where it
could not have been more than one or two stories high. There is no
evidence of the former existence of an inclosed court of any
considerable size between the buildings and the cliff, although a
passage probably skirted the brink of the precipice, and house ladders
may have been placed on that side for ready access to upper rooms. By
a series of platforms or terraces, which were in fact the roofs of the
houses, one mounted to the upper stories which formed the apex of the
pueblo.

[Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY

SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. CIX

EXCAVATIONS IN THE WESTERN MOUND OF AWATOBI]

[Illustration: FIG. 256--Structure of house wall of Awatobi]

On the western, northern, and eastern sides the slope is more gradual,
and while there are many obscurely marked house plans visible over the
surface, even quite near the top of the elevation, they are doubtless
the remains of single-story structures. This leads me to suspect that
when Awatobi was built it was reared on a mound of soil or sand, and
not on the solid rock surface of the mesa. The configuration, then,
shows that the pueblo sloped by easy decline to the plain to the
north, but rose more abruptly from the south and west. There are low
extramural mounds to the north, showing that on this side the
dwellings were composed of straggling chambers. The general character
of the rooms on the level slope at the western side of old Awatobi is
shown in the accompanying illustration (plate CX). The peculiarity of
these rooms appears by a comparison with the many-story chambers of
the