The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-04-25
WESTE. N RAMBLINGS.
Special Correspondents to The Bulletin.

S'DbSt NNIo' <hPiii w. iOST'
Las Vegas our route took us to La Junta
the junction of the road to Denver via
Pueblo, at Pueblo the narrow gauge cars
takes one flying westward over the grand
Veto Pass, the magnificent scenery 10 be-
yond the power of tongue or pen to describe
On, on, through valleys and over noun
tains until Durango is reached, from here
pack animals are brought into requisition
that trip of exploration to the ruins of the
ancient cliff dwellers may be made. Won
der of wonders!-more puzzling than the
ancient foot prints of human habitation, at
some remote period, in the Land OF the
Nile or of the Euphrates.
Here In this south western corner of Co.
dorado may be found pottery, stone axes
cord, beans and many other evidences of a
semi-civilized race. On the sides of the
ragged terraced mountains and in the open
canyons there are picturesque ruins and re-
mains of towns. Far up among the cliffs
are clusters Of stone houses, some of which
are of large dimensions, containing a num-
Der of rooms; some of the walls of solid
masonary and archways are still In good
state of preservation, even the plasteriug, as
hard as the rock itself, in Iplaces yet re-
mans. In digging among the debris large
earthen vessels with hewn stone lids, were
found; also rush mattings and tissue manu-
featured from the bark of trees. Hewn
steps lead from the valley far up to the
houses that are perched upon the shelving
rock cliffs. Some of the buildings give sv-
dence Of fire having been in use in them.
There is evidence that some of those
buildings were in size equal to any in the
United States, some having wings one bun.
dred and thirty-tive feet in length and court
walls two to three hundred feet in length.
1t WAS estimated that one wall, running
around three sides of the building nine
hundred 0pd thrty.iive feet in length and
forty feet in height there were more than
two million pieces of stone for the outer sur
| face of the outer wall alone. This surface
multiplied by the stones ofthe interior tran
verse lines Of masonary, would give q totaI
of thirty million pieces in three hundred
and fifteen thousand cubic feet of wall
These millions of pieces had to be quarried
and put in position; the timbers were
brought from great distance; and lcsnsid
erlng the vastness of the work and amount
Of labor and time that must have been. ex
pended these buildings may we'll be com
pared to the most famous works of what i
80 wrongly called the old world.
Among the caves OF the Rio de Chelll
were found some of the most beautifully
tinted arrow heads ever discovered, also
numbers of large earthsn Jars Of oval design
10 large three story house were found
many instruments of domestic use, present.
ing the stone age. Among them were large
grindstones and hammers. The walls, were
plastered with cement of stucco-like finish
That it was spread on the walls by human
hands, is evident from the marks of the
pores of the skin to be found on the surface
Occasionally the whole imprint of the hand
has been left; one womsn's slender fingers
are thus preserved for the people of the nine.
teenth century.
AS to the date of those erections but little
can be determined at present. The Mcqui
towns are now in precisely the same state
of preservation as they were when described
by the invading Spanisrds nearly four hun.
dred years ago. Assuming the Moquis to
be hneal descendants of the cliff-dwelers,
how vast time the old canyon castles must
have been deserted when even the Moquis
have no knowledge of the grand homes Of
their ancestorsl Regarding the age of the
Pueblos, they were SAID by Coronado at the
time of the conqueat to look very
old. Castenado records that the
inhabitants told him that the Pueblos were
older than the memory OF seven hundred
years. That these ruins were known tC
the Spanish Invaders we have proof in thu
journal Of Den Antonio de Olermln, writer
in 1861, where mention is made eighty
leagues distant from their camp there wer.
Cssss Grsndas. Gallatin speaks of then
and ascribes them to the "Azteques." Per
haps time and more extended research ma!
reopen the history of these people Wit
have been swept away from their CRANE
cities, leaving nothing but the stony wall
of their houses and castles to tell the tale
of their Pre-Columbia greatness. But thi
we know that these and other tokens tel
US that in reality America is the old worlc
and that thousand of years ago race
hourished here in a high state of barbara
culture.
Durango is place of considerable trad