The Coconino sun., 1920-08-20

l 11G SOSO4NAA' we camped and proceeded to make drawings and take photographs.
 Some of the Worlds Greatest MOnu-
 ments.
 Not in the graveyards of men are the largest monuments. They are not in the public squares of our cities or capitals. Neither do they mark the sites of the great battlefields of con- tending armies of human beings. They usually stand in the silent places of the earth. They are the worlds mon- uments. They are the landmarks, the giant tombstones that mark the sites of greater battles than was ever wag- ed by man, or can be waged by him. That great conflict is between the con- tending elements and the residual rocks. The amount of open space (the gaps) between the monuments show the elements have succeeded. The monuments show what part of the or iginal surface still withstands the on- slaughts of wind, water, rain, snow and heat. With the battles of men the monuments are erected after the close of the conflict; with the battle of the elements against residual rocks, the battle closes when the monuments are obliterated.
 In this region such battle has been going on for ages. This battle has left a conspicuous cluster of msnu- ments, known as the monuments. Un- der this name the area containing them has been set apart as a national park by our government. In this re- zion we had gone to see what God hath wrought. The cluster is com posed of enormous eroded pillars of sandstone. There are chimneys hun dreds of feet high, castled buttes, buttes in the shape of a giant hat more than 1900 feet in height, and one giant mitten-shaped butte with ex- tended thumb. These are marking time as the sun carries us onward through space.
 At about p. m. we left the buttes and hied westward over an old lake bed past buttes and mesas on either side for an hour or more. We then climbed on westward over a ridge and into a basin-valley, and on across this. Reaching its western edge we started to climb out over bad ridge of up- turned rock-there was no other way to get out in the direction we were going. On climbing over the rocks one mule got down and the other mule got on top of him. We unlocked the wagon and pushed it back down the hill. We unlocked the check and the neckyoke and then got the one mule from off the other. We then had to roll the down mule over down hill be- fore he could get up. We then re- hitched and resumed our journey. Just at dusk, after crossing another can- yon we came out in a jagged-valley in front of an isolated mesa in front of Snake House., the object of our western trip. Here we camped. The next morning at sun-up we were up drawing and taking pictures, while breakfast was cooking and the horses were eating.
 Snake House is a cliff house of the ages that are gone. Who lived there no one knows. Where they went or why they departed their home we know less. The ruin is along the south- east face of the cliff and in two ex- tensive caves, one at each end of the outer ruin. The east cave is about 100 feet deep-back into the cliff, and prob ably 25 feet wide. It seems to have been large council hall. It is smoked from end to end and has much potter debris on its floors. No signs of rooms now remain. The cave at the west side (end) is 40 feet wide at the en- trance, runs back about 40 feet, and then has two sets of additional rooms running back into the cliff from it. The north room is walled in now and was used as a bin. Part of the wall that enclosed the south room also shows. Parts of walls of rooms also show in the main cave room, in addi- tion it is enclosed (shut in) by an outer wall. Along the wall between the two caves are the remains of an open village that was probably 25 feet wide. Many of the rooms are still in- tact with roofs still on them. Some are flat roofed. Some are built in beehive style against the wall. All are small and all have very small doors. Above the west end of the outer vil- lage is a drawing of huge snake 40 feet in length in zig-zag with 21 joints. Its head is two-thirds as big as a plate and in that shape. The whole drawing is in white. Several other snakes are also drawn on the