The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-17
GREAT RUINS IN NEW MEXICO.
Remains of Large Prehistoric Build
ings in San Juan County.

ings in San Juan County.
From the Santa Fe New Mexican.
1t is not only in Santa Fe county where
the ancient dwellings are found, but in
San Juan there exist wonderful remains
of the early dwellers. About a mile west
Of the county town of Aztec on mesa
now under cultivation, are found the fall
en- or partially standing walls of struc-
ture which presents features of unusual
interest The mound of debris which has
been made from the fallen walls is quite
twenty-five feet above the general level,
and out of the heap walls yet standing
rise in their original position to a further
hight of thirty feet.
The lower rooms can now be reached
only through a passage way that has
been cut through the second story, and
can be examined only by the aid of arti-
fetal light. They vary from 6 by 10 to
10 by Is feet at the base and are ten feet
in hight. The ground walls are three and
one-half feet in thickness, and the facings
Of all outer and inner walls are made of
dressed stone of uniform thickness. While
shaped without the aid of metal tools,
they present very uniform appearance
and the amount of labor required to dress
them with implements of stone attest the
skill and patience of the builders. The
many thousands of tons of rock were
brought by human labor from a quarry
two miles distant. Some attempt was
made to break joints in the different
courses, and, doubtless for artistic effect,
alternate layers of stone, not more than
one inch in thickness, were frequently
used in the walls.
The builders evidently knew the use
Of the plumb line for the standing walls
are vertical, but they were ignorant of
the principles of bonding at point of wall
intersections. for each cross wall lis built
to, but not into, the wall it meets at the
true right angle They evidently were
not familiar with the use of lime, for all
mortar was made from a deposit of red
clay, about one-half mile distant, which
contains a large amount of pyroXide of
iron and minute infusOriae of marine de-
posit, which furnishes a mortar, when
protected from the weather, almost as
hard as cement. In these dry and now
underground rooms this mortar has be-
come almost as hard as the stone itself,
but in the outer walls the centuries of
storms and sand-laden winds have worn
it away to a depth of about two inches.
Passage to the several rooms was made
through doorways of uniform width of
three feet, varying from four to five feet
in hight and so far as known all en-
trance was first made from the court or
quadrangular area embraced within the
outer walls Light and ventilation was
secured to the outer tier of rooms by
openings, usually by II inches in size,
which are located at a uniform distance
Of six feet from the clay floors.
In all places where irregular joints oc-
cur the mortar is filled with countless
numbers of flakes of stone, perhaps not
more than one-eghth of an inch in thick
ness. The mortar was placed with the
hand, as is apparent from the palm and
finger prints. All dividing walls were
carried from the base through the upper
stories, thus making rooms in tiers of
uniform size. AS the several stories were
completed an offset of about four inches
was made and from the receding thickness
of the three stories now standing the
building was evidently seven stories in
hight.
While many of the rooms bear no evil
dence of fire, others are blackened with
smoke, and the fireplaces i'm the angles
are connected with plastered fiues that
extend right through the several stories
puZZling question arises as to how
o. where they procured the logs that sup
port the several floors. They resemble
red spruce, but that is not now found
nearer than 100 miles distant on the high
err mountains at the head of the Animas
river and, if procured, could have been
brought down only by being fioated on
that stream One log. which now in part
supports the floor of three rooms, is forty
'wo feet in length, with a difference of
hut two inches in diameter at either end
Some years ago q log was removed from
the ruins that was sixty-four feet in
.-ngth, having a diameter of eight and
'i"Ven inches at the extreme ends No
rcd spruce now growing in the forest
maintains its size to this degree All
supporting beams were cut in the spring
Tor they are free from bark and bear no
marks of tools except at the ends. where
with stone axes they were cut off as even
Iy as can be done with the modern steel
ak. This may be hard statement to be-
heve but the logs are here to speak for
themselves, in the absence of their former
owners and ell can see who will. So Gu
curing and great is the strength of this
Nmber that now after centuries of use,
"here it has been protected from mois-
lure, it is apparently as sound as when
hrst cut. and the two logs that span each
room now support deposit of from ten
or nfteen feet of rock and mortar that has
IAIon from former walls. In other rooms
through the open doorways can be seen
we broken and battered beams and poles
mat have been crushed by the great
weight of fallen debris, writes Cecil A.
Deane.
All right angles to the beams lis laid
TIER of small poles about three inches IN
uameter. and also free from bark. On
'oese Is layer OF cedar splints, and
move them a layer of cedar bark, which
~ turn is covered with a deposit of clay
mortar about four inches in thickness,
"nlch forms the floor proper.
ABOUT fifty rooms Ina the lower and now
Underground story have been opened. The
lumber so far as investigations have been
made Indicate total of about 100 rooms,
or 40 in the building before its destruction
Mds began. ga plan of the ground story
was made by Prof. w. X. Moorehead,