News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-10-30
THE CLIFF JEWELLERS.
Visit to the Abandoned Dwellings of the
san francisco Georges.

Three hundred and forty miles west OF
Albuquerque is Flagstaff, centrally To-
Gated among the most attractive features
OF the section. The pride and boast of
the town is the ancient city of Cliff
Dwellings in a mountain gorge some
eight miles east of the village. 1t is a
pleasant drive, affording much time for
lettering and leisure by the wayside,
where the winding road leads through
alternate stretches of forest and prairie
glades. Antelope, black-tailed deer and
wild turkey are here in great numbers,
and the visitor to the Cliff Dwellings is
frequently rewarded with saddle OF
venison or brace OF birds. The visitor
has no warning of his proximity to the
ancient pueblo until he stands on the
very brink of the canon and gazes down
into gorge, deep. dark and foreboding.
On descending he feels an oppressed
sensation stealing over him, caused by
the sudden shutting out of the bread
world, but he soon loses this in the con-
temptation of his surroundings. 1t is rs
if he were transferred for the hour into
some country and cline remote, abound
ing in forms and sights grotesque. The
trees and shrubs are of variety wholly
different from those just left on the
heights above him, the birds of gayer
song and more brilliant pJumage, with
here the skeleton of some monster beast,
and there massive horns. Continuing
the descent to the bottom he finds great
RATS of logs piled high by the floods of
former years One of these great drifts,
fred by an Indian or some adventurer,
lies black and desolate mass. Far up
the frowning cliff walls have crumbled
and mingled with the heaps Of ashes and
bIackened half-buried trunks of trees.
Niched in the walls of these cliffs, in
broader and more cheerful part of the
| tortuous gOrSeYzfe the ruins of the cliff
jewellers. Some freak of nature has left
great caverns in the stratifed rocks, af-
fording only floor and roof, leaving for the
cliff dweller the simple task of dividing
this space by walls according to fancy or
necessity. The walls are built of mud
and stone and bear evidence of some
skill in construction and rare ingenuity
in location. Every foot of space SO COW
cred is enclosed, even though the outer
walls stand upon the very brink of the
yawning depths below. No enlightened
mother, perhaps, has ever visited this
spot without asking how these people
could rear children in such place. The
dwellings, extend mile along the rug
ged, jutting sides of the canon, far down
its walls, and yet are hundreds of feet
from the bottom. They are constructed
in tiers one above the other and occupy
each side of the gorge. There are six
tiers in all.
This ancient city is accessible from
only one or two points and for only two
persons at time. It is the largest pu-
eblo known. Although it has been WIS.,
tied by tourists and travellers from every
quarter of the civilized world in the past
season, many of its dark caverns are yet
a mystery and have never been entered
by white man. Having once gained
access to one row or tier it is necessary
to travel to the end of it before gaining
access to the one above or below it.
While it is an accepted theory that
these ruins are the former homes and
dwelling place of some race now extinct,
it seems more reasonable to suppose that
they were the retreat of some vanquished
people, who here sought refuge from
the fierce nomadic tribes that roamed
these wilds at time so remote that his
tory bears no record OF their wars.
Their descendants may yet be found in
the Pueblos or Moquis.