Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-07-14
A BURIED CITY.
THE GREAT SOUTHWEST A LAND or
MARvElS.
A Dazzling white Laiso suddenly Formed
IN New Mcxlco-Tho Chaicedony
Park Of Arizona.


sights and wonders now never need GO
abroad. The natural wonders Of the world
ere ott this side OF the Atlantic. Our
country contains miles upon miles OF
ruriOus. startling. and etupendous maryels,
and ell within few days ride Of the most
1,olIuious cities Of the East. The great
Northwest has been thoroughly done "
or gone over by travellers, but the great
Southwest remains as yet almost an un-
explored region. Lack OF railroads. hos
tile Indians, the prevalence of cut-throats
nsd road agents. have been causes
suficien. 10 give the region bad name,
and so this portion Of the continent Is per-
hans tho least known and understood OF
all our territory. Arizona, New Mexico,
and Northwestern Texas have many sur
l,riscs in store for sightseeing travellers.
! Ruins Of lost cities. cave-dwelhngs, clln-
houses. and other abodcs Of extinct man
are now being uncovered TO the light of
Siay, showing that great and industrious
ycGple once inhabited the land, who IN
dersf0cd something Of the arts and sciences.
snd who cultivated the fields and ploughed
The ground at some distant epoch of time
much the same rs we do to-day.
few months ago, Mt Cochite, on the
American side Of the Rio Grande, Amanda
Chavez discovered the ruins OF an extern
eivc city. the existence Of which had never
been suspected before. The place where
this hidden cf9y lies has hitherto had the
general appearance Of huge swell or rises
Ia the prairio, perfect desert in outward
pppcarance. for IL contained no herb, no
root. 10 plant, no verdure of any KIND:
nothing save a waste Of sand. alkali, and
dirt. across which living creatures heSitated
20 travel unless forced TO do SO. Beneath
this pile Of desolation lay the ruins of an
ancient city, probably Toltec in origin.
now BURIED.
u isuot hard toimagine how the old city
became buried. Mr. Chavez tells us how
he CHANGED 10 stumble across il soon after
> waterspout and gale of wind uncovered
the ruins 10 view. Here in the far South
west. where rains are few and strong winds
fre0nent, the surface Of the country, which
hv ages Of drought and disintegrating pro-
s.tsses has become crumbled and loose, is
picked up and carried about from place 10
Ilsee by almost any wind that blows.
Very often these whirlgig storms de-
Nelop into miniature cyclones, and some
times they grow SO large and on such a
fraad scale that their power and destruct-
iyeness are almost beyond belief. Sweep
inr across the country with not so much
velocity "a "A genuine cyclone, they pick
up and carry along rocks, dirt, stone. trees,
sand, and what not, smashing everything
they encounter and spreading ruin in their
path. They have habit when reaching
soft. Welding surface Of boring down and
sucking up or scooping out the sand, leav-
ing the hollow spot barren and clean as far
down as bedrock, and this hollow or hole
looks for all the world as IL some gigantic
augur bad been employed in. doing the
work. Hence they are called sand au-
ours" SO dense is the mass of sand gath
cred up by this curious phenomenon Of
nature that the column, whiriing about
$50 Ia frt1r ~
clouds and Joins with the latter in forming
u funnel from the earth 10 the sky.
Thof first indication of a sand-au would
be- the formation here and there of little
whiriigigs of dusty wind, picking up bits
of straw. leaves, and other rubbish, aud
WALKING about helteT-skelter with them
from place TO place. In this valley, from
where lam writing, one can see almost any
Clay dozen or more of the little tunnels,
looking like tall, slender pipes of smoke,
dancing over the prairie in every
direction. One or two of them some
times meet and JOIN forces, but when
- dozen or twenty come together and hap
pen at the same time 10 strike heavy,
lOW-hanging cloud full of wind and
VapOr. then the chances are that genuine
sand-augur Of the first magnitude will be
generated. Although formed or created
by succession of small whirlwinds, sand
uueurs break up very quickly, collapsing
so Suddenly that the heavens for time are
q mass of flying, falling sand. Anything
below Is simply swamped out of existence.
Professor L. T.. Clarke, with q railroad-en-
giueering party. thus describes ten Sc
Cond' experience he had one Sunday af-
feruOOn with small-sized frolicking
sand-augur. This particular monster had
q diameter of only eighteen or TWEEN
ty feet at the ground. but its bulk in
creased with its height until IL was finally
merred into the broad surface of a thick,
heavy. hanging cloud. 1t passed near
cur camp where | was at work." said the
professor, "and carried of tent or two.
IT then grazed the edge of acorral near by,
cutting away one angle of an adobe wall,
aud sweeping by the house itself, left every
pane Of glass in the one window AS neatly
ground as if done by sand blast machine.
Passing on, the tents and augu" was carry
ing off became entangled in The telegraph
wires running through the vale and after
dragging down two poles the c. lone col
lapsed. leaving beneath when it ,roke up
II tremendous mound of sand and dirt
where nothing had been before.
MADE THE FIRST DEPOSIT.
Snch. no doubtswas the fate of the city
recently unearthed by Mr.. CHAVEZ. A sand
aucur possibly made the first deposit, and
then the continuous aecum mutations OF
windshades and the like piled up the sand
and other detritus until the whole was con-
YeIted into an extensive mound. The I'M
covering of the ruins WAS accomplished by
a severe min-stOrm, which proved TO be
genuine cloud-burst. This, sweeping down
upon the sandy mound with terrific force,
washed away one angle of the mound, dis
closing some heavy stone walls which made
the discovery possible. Mr.. Chavez OBJ
tanned number of interesting relics One
II. lao az do Of
around its neck of turquois, jet, and bone,
respectively; also. earrings of Jet and
turquois. The mummy's hair was brown,
lud some pieces of bright ornamented
pottery were near il. Arrow-heads, broken
lottery, DC, were scattered about. The
skeleton was in "a chamber of solid mason
u. the stones firmly cemented, and it may
have been his tomb, within which he was
scaled az the time of his death.
One large building, with massive stone
walls and tower at each corner, was ex-
posed by the cloud-burst. This has the
appearance of citadel, the masonry being
strong and secure, and in the centre is pro-
badly a water reservoir with aqueducts of
stone stretching away IN many directions,
Ewing the idea that the building was
erected for the purpose of standing siege.
some Pueblo Indians, questioned regard
ing the old city, say that its name WAS
(iuato, and that il hourished long before
Cortez came to Mexico. OF course this is
mere tradition and cannot be relied upon;
vet If il is Of Toltec origin the probabili-
lies are that il was built ages ago, and
possibly antedates the building of the first
Egyptian pyramid.
In the salt River Valley, which is now q
desert, the ruins of no less than nineteen
buried cities have been found. Excava-
tons show that once q mighty and popu-
Ious people inhabited the valley, and that
they cultivated vast fields of maize, un-
derstood agriculture thoroughly, aud even
carried on irrigation 10 an extent that sur
passes the best efforts of modern nations.
lIrigating canals, built substantially, cut
The country in every direction. The
growth of maize INDUCED in by these ex-
tinct nations is something astonishing.
Notwithstanding their irTigating schemes,
they must have reasoned like Joseph of
old in Egypt and laid by two or three
years supply in case famine should
strike the land. Even now the Zuni In
dams keep stored away three years sup
ply OF zrain IN order 10 eounteract any
emergency of drought of war.
Another remarkable curiosity to be seen
in this vicinity is a dazzling white lake
situated ina the gypsum sands of North