The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1901-07-27
From the scientific American.

FROM the Scleutinc AticiAcaai.
Action by Congress in the closing days
of the season which ended March 4 last
lenders certain the preservation of the most
interesting cliff ruins in this country, and
their protection from further spoliation.
The region known as the Mesa Verde, in
Colorado, in which there are hundreds OF
ruins, is to be set aside as public park,
and steps are to be taken to put stop to
the commercial exploitation of the works
of the ancient cliff jewellers.
Discovered some twenty five years ago,
the ruins on the Mesa Verde and in the
Mancos canyon, which cuts through the
heart of the elevated tableland, rested for
a long time undisturbed and even unvisited,
owing to the inaccessibility of the place.
Within the last ten years, however, ranch
men living in the vicinity found that speci-
mems from the ruins had a commercial
value, and active work began in the strip
ping of the remains Of everything which
could be carried off Under the act of
Congress this destruction will soon cease.
The Mesa Verde is an elevated tableland
of the type which characterizes South
western Colorado and Northern New Next
co and Arizona 1t is irregular in form,
comprising about 700 square miles, ap-
proximately fat on top, but cut into IN
Vulnerable canyons and gorges by the Man
cos River and its tributaries. The great
development of the art of building among
the ancient cliff dwellers was due in large
measure to the peculiar geological features
of the country; nowhere better illustrated
than in the Mesa Verde.
The Mancos canyon is about thirty miles
long and from 1 900 to 2, 900 feet in depth,
the narrow, irregular river bottom being
bounded by long, steep slopes of debris,
which merge into succession OF sleeps and
slopes, eliminating above in a series of
lofty cliffs. Traces of the old cliff jewellers
are to be found throughout the region,
along the bottoms, in the cliffs and on the
high tablslands Taken altogether, there
is no region which surpasses the Mesa Verde
country in its archaeological interest, or
which is better worth preservation, although
it should be noted that the Indians have
tradition of another and better region to
the south.
Practically all the more important types
Of ancient dwellings are represented in the
remains found in the Mesa Verde region,
and, in addition, there are Others which
reach a development there not attained
elsewhere. Even the large valley settle
ments, comprising several hundred rooms,
and located without reference to defense,
the highest type of the ancient builders
architecture, are found here and there IN
favorable sites on the canyon bottom.
These valley settlements merge almost
insensibly into the cliff dwellings proper
through another type which might be
termed cliff villages, a type which appears
to have reached its highest development in
the Mesa Verde region. One of the most
imposing of these cliff villages, discovered
in comparatively recent times, is ruin
which has been called the 'sClif Palace,
found in the upper part of Cliff canyon,
one of the principal gorges which join the
Mancos canyon from the north. The ruin
is 425 feet long and occupies cove in the
cliff about eighty feet high and about the
same in depth. Some of the rooms were
circular, some oval in shape, but most Of
them we're rectangular, and in places the
structure was at least three stories high.
Access to the settlement could be had only
from above, by the aid of series of steps
cut into the face of the cliff. Eight miles
above the mouth of the Mancos there are
the ruins Of another large cliff village. In
this case the houses occupied two narrow
lodges in the cliffs, one about thirty feet
above the other and at least 800 feet above
the canyon bottom.
The cliff villages always contained one or
more circular rooms, the use OF which was
doubtless religious, for similar structures
are found in the valley ruins and in some
of the inhabited pueblos, where they are
known as estufas. In them are performed
MANY OF those sacred ceremonies of the
tribe. Besides the cliff villages, however,
there are hundreds of cliff dwellings in the
Mancos Canyon and its branches, ranging
in size from single rooms up to groups OF
considerable importance, in which no circu-
lar rooms are found. Many Of them are
on sites SO inaccessible that it seems incred-
ible that human beings should select such
places for homes.
A type closely related to the cliff dwell
ing proper is the cave dwelling, fine exam
pies of which are found in the Mancos
Canyon and in other parts of the region.
These curious habitations are followed out
of the cliffs by digging away the soft shaly
rock and then walling up the fronts In
one place in the Mancos Canyon pictur-
esque outstanding promontory is literally
honeycombed with these dwellings, which
give one the impression that they were
constructed by race of pygmies, for neither
the outer apertures nor the openings be-
tween the rooms are large enough to per
NIT a person of ordinary stature to pass
through.
On the brink of the cliff above these
cave dwellings, is the ruin of circular
tower These towers are found through
out the Mesa Verde country; 10 fact, there
is hardly half mile without the remains
of one or more of them Nowhere else do
they attain the same development. In size
they range from ten feet in diameter up to
forty or more, with walls one to two feet in
thickness still standing, in some cases to
height Of over fifteen feet They are in
variably connected with other structures,
usually groups of rectangular rooms, and in
the finest examples the circular walls are
double and even triple, the spaces between
them being divided into apartments by par
tition walls of lighter construction. The
masonry is of the highest type, the stones
being dressed on the outside of the curve
by pecking with stone implement and
laid neatly in mud mortar.
It has been suggested that the circular
towers were in some way connected with
the peculiar rites of serpent worship, and,
perhaps, were the repositories for the snakes
used in the sacred ceremonies In the
Moki villages, to the south, where the
snake dance is biennial rite, all that part
of the ceremony which precedes the public
exhibition takes place in the estufas, and
if the same rites prevailed in the Verde
country, as seems likely, it is probable that
they were performed in the circular towers.
Throuohout the whole of the Verde