Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1880-08-12

those OF New Mexico, and, therefore, the
area covered by the ruins is the entire
area once covered by ancient habi-
tations; so that with the adoption of
this theory the ruined cities" become a
baseless fabric of the fancy.
When described in definite, specific
language, these ruins are shorn of most
of their magnificence. Mr.. Rice in his
account of the ruins of Uxmal, describes
them in general way that leaves upon
the mind of the reader an indefinite no
tion of grandeur. Mr.. Morgan brings
out the fact that they are long, one
storied buildings of the simplest possible
construction, built of blocks of coralline
limestone, which is soft and easily cary
ed when first quarried, but hardens on
exposure. The principal buildings at
Uxmal is 322 feet long, SO feet wide, and
80 feet high. A wall extending through
the cen eIlalong the greatest length of
the building divides it into two rows of
apartments. There are no windows, the
rooms being lighted only from the door
ways to them. This is the regular type
of architecture among these ruins. The
houses are built upon high embank
ments, and the faces of them are cover
ed by rude sculpture. At Uxmal there
are two buildings, each 12s feet long and
80 feet deep, the rooms of which are filled
with stone and mortar. Mr. Rice won
deringly asks: "What possible use could
these curious buildings have served ?"
Mr.. Morgan shows. The ceilings of the
rooms in these buildings were triangular
arches, and the builders were so def
cient in their architectural methods that
the only way in which they could con-
struct them was by filing in the interior
OF the rooms as they carried up the
walls, so that in forming an arch they
would have solid core on which to
rest the stones until the arch was COM
plete and would stand while the interior
mass was excavated and removed
through the door-ways. The two build
ings are, therefore, simply pueblos
which were unfinished at the time they
were driven away by some band of Span
ish invaders. This would carry their
date back to about 1920.
There has always been veil of ro-
nance hanging over the pueblos of Cen
trail America and New Mexico In the
sixteenth century tales of "The Seven
Cities of Cibola," with immense stores
of treasure, lured an army of adven-
turers into New Mexico, where they
found not gold or silver, but simply pue-
bios of the same type-but less preten-
tiOus architecture-as those of Yucatan
and Mexico with which they were fa-
miliar. The expedition now going to
Mexico will find not ruined cities, relics
of an age of golden cure, recalling the
glory of Greece and the grandeur of
Rome, but simply ornate pueblos once
inhabited by Indians whose descendants
still live in the isame region. If mere
vastness of design were to constitute the
chief claim to attention, there are ruins
in New Mexico that would have a prior
right to investigation. The Pueblo Bon
ito, in the canon of the Rio Chaco, is 554
feet long and 314 feet wide, with GAL |
rooms. This is probably the largest
structure of the kind in America, ex-
ceeding even the halls of the Montezu-
mas. The ruins of the pueblos represent |
not the palaces of the vanished cities,
but the communal dwellings of peaceful
Indians, somewhat above barbarism, but |
a long way from civilization, who raised |
lofty embankments and built thereon |
large structures of the simplest type for
mutual security and defence. The re-
mains of their mounds are found at va
rious places in the West, their more |
durable and elaborate structures in Cen
tral America; and their type of social |
still survives in the Puebla |
Indians of New Mexico.