Daily Kennebec journal., 1878-11-19
#istella
TIE WESTERN CLlFF.BWEILERs.

OF late, blown over the plains. eovne
stories OF strange newly discovered cities
OF the far southwest picturesque piles OF
masonry Of an age unknown to tradition.
These ruins mark an era among ANTIGUA
rians. The mysterious mound-bdilders
fade into comparative insiguifcancs bolbre
the grander and more ancient clif-dvsll.
ers, whose castles lift their towers amid
the sands Of Arizona and crown the ter.
race d slopes of the Rio Mancos and the
Hovneweep pronounced Hov-en-weep.)
ruin, accidentally discovered by A. ID.
Wilson OF the Hayden Survey several years
ago. while he was pursuing his labors as
chief Of the Typographical corps in South
ern Colorado, is described TO me bv Mr.,
Wilson AS stone building about The size
OF the Patent-Office. 1t stood on the bank
of the Animas, in the San Juan country,
and contained perhaps five hundred rooms.
The root and portions of the wslis Had
fallen. but the part standing indicated q
height OF four stoSes. A number of the
rooms were fairly preserved. had small
lOop-hole windows, but no outer doors.
| The building had doubtless been entered
| originally by means OF ladders resting on
inches, and drawn Ia after the Occupaots.
The floors were of cedar, each log as large
around rs mans head, the spaces neatly
| filled by smaller poles and twigs, COW
| cred by carpet OF cedsr-bark. The ends
| of the timber were bruised and fraysd. n
If severed by dull instrument; In the
vicinity were stone hatchets, and saws
made Of sandstone slivers about two feet
long. worn to smooth edge. A few hum
dred yards from the mammoth building
was second large house 10 ruins, and be-
| tween the two strODghOlds rows Of small
| dwellings. built of cobble-stones laic in
adobe, and arranged along streets, after
the style OF the village Of to-day, o. The
smaller houses were in more, advanced
state OF ruin, on account of the round
stones being more readily disintegrat-
ed by the elements than the Dhsavy
masonry. The streets and houses Of, this
deserted town are overgrown by juniper
and pinon. the later a dwarf widespread
ing pine which bears beneath the
| scales of its cones delicious ana nusritlous
| nuts. From the size of the dead, - W II
as the living trees. and from their posi-
ton on the heaps of crumbling stone, Mr..
Wilson concludes that . great period
has elapsed since the buildings fell. Hcw
many hundred years they stood altar, de-
sertion before yielding to the inroads Of
time cannot be certainly known.
The presence of sound wood ID the
houses does not set aside their antiQuity.
In the dry. pure air Of Southern Colorado.
wood fairly protected will last for centu-
ries. In Asia cedar-wood has kept thou
sand years. and Egypt cedar is known to
have been in perfect preservation two
thousand years after it left the forest,
The cedars thrOughO the territories of
the southwest do not rot, even in the
groves. They die, and stand erect, solid
and sapless. The winds aud whirling
sands carve the dead trees into forms Of
fantastic beauty, drill holes through the
trunks, and play at hide and -go-saek in
the perforated limbs until, after ages of
resistance, they literally blow away ID at
oms OF fine, clean dust. lH ai svEd
On the Rio San Juan, about twenty-five
miles distant from the city of the Animas,
Mr.. Wilson discovered the following even
ing similar pile, looming solemnly in
the twilight near their camping iplace.
The scene as described WAS weird In the
extreme. As the moon arose, the shad-
ows of the phantom buildings were thrown
darkly across the silver plain. The blaze
of camp-hres, the Tiny tents, the negro
cook. the men in buckskin hunting ,garb,
and the picketed mules, made q strange
picture OF the summers night. with back
ground of moonlit desert and cfunbling
ruins, on whose ramparts lowered dead,
gaut cedars, lifting their bleachsd skele-
tons like sheeted ghosts within the silent
watch-towers of the murky past.-Frosn
an illustrated article in Sc,i6ney Jbs De.
ce,uber e. .ft -