The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-29

and so friable that il can be crushed
in the hand. This had evidently fallen
from the Overhanging rock, and has
been subjected to an intense heat. Be
meath this / found a quantity of corn,
covering a clay and rock floor, 10 a
deDth of from three or four to twelve
inches. The corn was in the ear. is as
black as let. and the room was evident
" used as a granary Many of the
ears are quite two inches in diameter,
have twelve rows of kernels, and their
size would prove that these ancient
Ueople cultivated variety larger than
now raised by the several tribes of
Pueblo Indians. / secured about two
bushels, nearly free from sand, which
1 brought to Denver. This granary
room bears north 81 degrees, 50 seconds
west. 736 feet from the southeast cor
ner of section Is. township north,
range 10 west. New Mexeico meridian.
Stone Brought 100 Miles.
1.-The corn has been calcined by heat.
but not brought in contact with fire, for
my most careful search failed to find a
particle Of ashes or charcoal in il, or in
its covering of burned sand rock. I'm
bedded in the corn / found two stone
hammers and three broken stone axes.
They are made of green stone and
horn blende. a variety Of rock not
found in places within 100 miles of that
localitv-
The total absence of tools made
from lava rock attracted my attention.
and l made a careful examination OF
other ruins. which occur at frequent
intervals for about six miles toward
the southeast till the head of the valley
is reached at the present placita of Ce-
bollita. In no instance did 1 find i'm
plements or fragments of lava among
these ruins when $50 or more feet above
the old lake bed, but below that level,
down to its margin, and even on its
surface, are ruins where lava is found
that was shaped for cutting TOOLS
hammers, metates or grinding stones,
and even used in the walls of their
habitations. Because of the many
sharp edges caused by air bubbles, the
porous lava is used for metates by the
present Pueblo Indians, as they were
used by an older race, but among the
ruins of a still older people they are
not found; instead slabs of stone were
brought from distant regions.
What caused this line of demarca-
ton to be so distinct? The effects of
heat thrown off from flowing lava may
be observed at a point about one mile
west of Grant station on the Santa Fe
& Pacific railroad. There Professor
Cutler and myself recently examined
its action on the exposed sand rock of
a butte which rises island-like in the
lava bed There the heat has convert
ed the sandstone into quartzite, al
though not in contact with the lava.
The area of this isolated lava flow is
less than 1000 acres; that west and
south of the cliff house in which I
found the corn exceeds AGO. 900 acres as
shown by official surveys.
Long Before Biblical Times.
From the evidence I believe the
margin of this great fresh water lake
was inhabited at a period of time,
vastly remote, by a numerous agricul-
tural race; that during the Tertiary
period an eruption of lava coming
from assures in the earths crust blot
ted out the lake, covered nearly all its
area with a deposit to a depth of more
than 100 feet, accompanied with heat
and nOXiOuS gases that destroyed all
animate and inanimate life. At a much
later period another race, having the
same general characteristics as the
former. dwelt on the margin and now
uncovered portion Of the old lake bed.
using the lava for tools and in part for
the construction of their dwellings,
material which was not present when
the older race necessarily used other
kind of rock to supply the implements
required in their domestic life.
During the recent visit yourself and
others made to that locality we found
much that proves the presence of man
in that region at time anterior to
that which scientists claim he appeared
in Europe and Asia. The slabs of
burned clay which we found near La
Boca station. Colorado, having on their
under side the impression of roof logs
and tropical foliage. the broken pot
terv and stone tools found buried be-
meath. the lava adhering to the upper
surface of the once clay roof, over all
the distinct evidence of local glacial
deposit. proves his presence there prior
to the glacial epoch. The twenty-siX-
foot shaft sunk beneath the fOunda-
tons of the great Pueblo Bonita ruins
in Chaco canyon, in which each foot
revea slhiS presence when the Tertiary
soil was being deposited, tells that he
then lived The stone walls, the top
of which ar twelve feet in like depOs-
it's below the surface of other ruins at
Ration Springs. offered like proof. The
calcined ears of corn embedded in lava
from Canyon Du Chilly speak emphat-
ically of his presence there at a period
prior to the overflow of lava, which
period it is asserted by those who have
made examinations under the direction
of the national government occurred
during the Tertiary era"