The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-10-25
ANCIENT CLIFF JEWELLERS
UNDOUBTEDLY THE ANCESTORS or
PRESENT PUEBLO TRIBES.

/ Mrs. Gilbert MoClurg's Second Lecture In
the Course on "The southwest'-she Re-
lates Her Personal Experience on ENplor-
ing Trips-Humorous Incidents and In
teresting Faots-Adventure Among the
Ute Indians.
The second lecture in the course on
1.-The Prehistoric Southwest" was dellv-
cred at United church chapel yesterday
. afternoon by Mrs. Gilbert mcclure.
Yesterdays lecture was divided into
two parts, the first dealing with the
racial peculiarites of the Cliff Dwellers
and the second part with Mrs. McClurg's
personal experience on her exploring
trips. She was dressed while lecturlng
IN costume similar to that worn in eX-
ploring, 1t consisted Of plain. gray
gown, broad brimmed felt hat, a Navajo
blanket over her right shoulder and
riding "blacksnake" in the right hand,
all making most picturesque costume
which was not becoming to the lee
turer's superb figure.
On the platform near her was the
fine collection of Indian relics. Mrs. Nc
Clurg asserted that the Peublo Indians
of the present day are descendants of
the old cliff jewellers, and gave convinc-
ing facts to prove this. She described
the dwellings of the ancient race and
thought that evidence goes to show that
Prehistoric Americans We're not de-
scended from an Asatic people. She
then told of her thrilling experiences
with the Ute Indians during her first
expedition, and how the party was COM
PEELED to go back to Durango, the base
of supplies. But she said:
But this experience only whetted my
desire to dig in the dry and dusty
past, and the next year. the Utes being
quiet, 1 organized a small party to ex-
plore the Mancos canon. We took no
tents with us, it being impossible to
carry them over that wilderness trail,
and we were equipped for a months
trip 1t was advisable to have a party
large enough to defy the Indians, or
small enough to elude them, and We
chose the latter alternative. At the
very beginning we experienced two
drawbacks, which in a measure frus-
trated our plans. Our beast of burden
was a pinto" our central equine figure.
A pinto is one of those blotched and
spotted brown and white steeds, popu-
lar in the circus and known to old
fashioned people as a calico horse"
Upon the pinto we had packed our prin-
cipal worldly goods, including a tin
Noei,1 II, 1o.r+ +NI
ticle of voluptuous luxury. and was
greeted with a sarcastic, whats the
matter with the creek?' We were in
East Canon, mo Thoroughfare' and
lovely in it's primeval freshness. The
railway runs there now
That bright day closed in a driz-
zling rain from which some struggling
water willows offered inadequate pro-
lection Dull clouds bounded dull vel
ley sparsely strewn with sage-brush
and grease-wood. Horses picketed, we
sat down round a dim, amateurish
campfire. A bright blaze might attract
disagreeable neighbors. BY the light
of a candle set in a vertebra of de-
funct steer, for candlestick, we unpack-
ed our raw recruit of a horse, impressed
in the pinto's place, and the damage
was revealed. We had foolishly packed
rice, oatmeal, etc, in the paper boxes
in which they came from the grocers.
Experienced packers always put such
things in bags. What pounds of cracker
dust; what showers of oatmeal and
rice; what broken bottles of pickles
and wine, marked the site of that camp,
can never be accurately estimated. All
permeating cayenne pepper was min
gled with the scanty provisions left
u.s. At an early hour, the travellers
turned in" on a few quilts hastily
spread on the ground, the rain falling
ON their upturned, shelterless faces
The first night spent out of doors is
an epoch Man is coming back to his
primal estate, but it is a wrench to his
second nature of habit. Did he ever
before hold his ear so close to the heart
of the mighty mother or hear the pull
sations of the universe? "The Silly
night" Was ever garish day so alive
with sounds? The susurras Of the night
wind: the stealthy steps of the picketed
horses; the patter of the rain; the
cracking of the dying fire; the distant
cry of a wild beast, and thousand
other inexplicable sounds-any or all of
which may be Indians
Thus it was that we found ourselves
nearly a hundred miles from base
of supplies, without adequate provi-
sions. We could not go back for more,
and it was resolved to stay until our
last morsel was gone. Unfortuna tely
we fell in, the next day with a party
of cowboys, who came down on the res
ervation to reclaim some ponies which
they said the Utes had stolen. There
was a scrimmage; the cowboys bringing
off the horse-hesh in triumph, and the
Utes vowing they would take the horses
of our party in revenge for those they
We're obliged to give up. Prudence
therefore compelled us to give up our
pleasant camp by the river, near wa
ter, which though alkaline, was at least
plentiful. The Mancos sends out null
titude of side canons and gorges which
appear literally to have honey-combed
the interior of the table-land; there
seems only the skeleton of the plateau
remaining We retired into one of
these, cutting Mancos at right angles,
which we named "Cliff Canon" and
which contains several villages. We
backed our horses up the entrance
ito the canon, so that their footprints