t. The positive assertion that the winter pueblo of the Pecos tribe was
about 2,000 feet higher than the great ruins on the _mesilla_--that
these ruins themselves were but their summer houses--was very startling.
It appeared incredible that the Indians should have left their
comfortable quarters in the coldest season to look for shelter in the
highest and coldest places of the whole region. Still, my informants
being old residents and candid men, with certainly no intention to
deceive me, and there being besides confused reports of the existence of
ruins on the mesa current among the people of the valley, I resolved to
devote my last day to a rapid reconnoissance of the elevated plateau.
Therefore, after a visit to the Plaza de Pecos, on the 5th of September,
where the Rev. Father Leon Mailluchet confirmed the reports about the
winter houses on the mesa, I set out (always on foot) on the morning of
the 6th, Mr. Thomas Munn having volunteered to be my guide.

We followed the railroad track downwards, and about a mile and a half
south of Baughl's, east of the track, met a tolerably large mound. At
the station of Kingman, four miles from Baughl's, there is also a ruined
stone house, rectangular, but smaller than any one of those on the
_mesilla_.[128] I had no time to make any survey. We went along the
railroad for one mile farther, then struck to the S. W. across a
recently cultivated but abandoned field, and finally reached the apron
of gravelly clay and locas skirting the high mesa. Here Mr. Munn assured
me were the remains of stone structures all along for miles, and
especially stone graves. Of the latter he had seen "hundreds." He
described them exactly as Mr. Walters had, and as I had found the pit in
mound V, and described the position of the skeleton also as if sitting
with the face to the east. We soon came to a walled ruin 6 m. x 6 m. or
20 ft. x 20 ft., the walls composed of sandstone,--a range of rubble
blocks very much ruined,--a _pinon_ having a diameter of 0.45 m.--18
in.--shooting up from the interior. 50 m.--165 ft.--further north a
clearly defined estufa is seen, 4 m.--13 ft.--across, with stone walls 1
m.--3 ft. 3 in.--in width. The apron of the mesa is overgrown with fine
pines. Thence, following a tie-shoot, we ascended very nearly
vertically, about 1,000 feet at least, to the top. Here already the view
to the E. and S. was magnificent; but the air was light and chilly.
Thunder-clouds were hovering N. a