most prosperous in New Mexico, having fine fields, large irrigating-ditches, and extensive flocks of sheep. "If you wish to see," said the kind old Hosti, ex-governador of the town, "what a great people we once were, (que gran pueblo los Jemez eran,) you must go upon the mesas and into the cañons of the vicinity, where ruins of our forefathers are numerous. Our people were a warlike race, and had many fights not only with the Spaniards but also with other Indian tribes, the Navajos and Taos for instance, and were thus reduced to this pueblo of Jemez, which now forms the last remnant.' Hosti's son led me to some ruins in the vicinity. A ride of six miles up the river brought us to the junction of the two great cañons, Guadaloupe and San Diego. Where the mesa between these cañons narrows itself to a point are the ruins of two pueblos, one upon the lower prominence of the mesa, named Batokvá, the other upon the mesa proper, called Ateyala-Keokvá, and only approachable by two narrow, steep trails, the mesa every where else being nearly perpendicular and 750 feet high. The view from the mesa is picturesque and imposing in the extreme; far beneath, to the right and left, a stream makes its way between the colossal walls of sandstone, which are penetrated by trachytic dikes; upon the narrow width of the mesa, near frightful precipices, are the ruins of a town of eighty houses, partly in parallel rows, partly in squares, and partly perched between the overhanging rocks, the rim and surfaces of which formed, at the same time, the walls of rooms, gaps, and interstices being filled in artificially. Nearly every house had one story and two rooms; the building material was trachytic rock, as found upon the mesa. Broken pottery, charred corn, and millstones for grinding corn, were found in some of the rooms. The roofs had all fallen in, and so also had many of the sidewalls, in the construction of which wood was but little used. Piñon-trees have taken root within many of the former rooms. Upon asking my Indian guide whether the former inhabitants of this town were obliged to descend the steep and dangerous pathway every day to the creek to procure water, he replied that there were cisterns on the mesa, in which rain, formerly plentiful, was caught. He then called my attention to some conical heaps of stone along the rim of the precipice, which was the material for defense. Although the position upon this mesa appears impregnable, the Spaniards succeeded in taking it, probably forcing the inhabitants to surrender by cutting off water and provisions. "When the Spaniards came up," said this Indian," the despair of the people was great; many threw themselves headlong into the frightful depths below, preferring suicide to humiliating death at the hands of their conquerors. Suddenly the Spirit Guadalupe, who is the custodian of the cañon, made his appearance, and from this moment the people could jump down without any danger, and since this remarkable episode the image of Guadalupe has been upon the rocks." On descending, I viewed this image, which is a white figure, about ten feet in length, painted high up on the vertical bluffs, apparently a difficult task for the unknown artist. The only place from which the spot could be reached is a narrow prominence 30 to 40 feet below the picture. As there is a sort of halo around the head, such as we are accustomed to see in pictures of saints, I believe this image to be the work of a Spanish priest who desired to impose upon the people, for which purpose he might have secretly made this picture, which to them is a miracle. Again, in the valley, the Indian called my attention to a number of peach-trees along the river-margin, which he said were planted by the former inhabitants of Ateyala-Keokvá, and, from the fact that these trees still blossom and bear fruit, it would seem that the impositions on the credulity of these people by the Spanish priests are not of a very remote period. The reports of the Spaniards frequently mention Jemez. Castañade, who accompanied Coronado on his marches through New Mexico, as early as 1541-43, speaks of two great provinces in that vicinity, Jemez, and north of it Juke-Yunke. He also speaks of strongly-fortified places difficult of access, and of a town, Braba, that was called by the Spaniards Falladolid on account of the resemblance of its situation with that of this Spanish town. I think that from this word is derived the name Fallatoa, used at the present day by the inhabitants of Jemez to signify their town. In the years 1692 and 1693 two war expeditions took place, under General Diegode Vargas, against the Jemez, who had destroyed the churches, murdered the priests, and declared themselves free from the Spanish yoke. In the Spanish account of these occurrences, it is mentioned that the Indians fled to a high mesa and there bombarded the Spaniards with a shower of stones. Trustworthy Mexicans told me that there are ruins of twenty-five or thirty towns upon the neighboring mesas and in the cañons, and those of five large churches. In the vicinity of the Hot Springs, (Ojos Calientes,) twelve miles above Jemez, in the Cañon de San Diego, are the ruins of one of them. The walls are fully 7 feet thick, and the interior space 100 feet long by 35 feet wide, with a tower attached on the north side. The destruction of this church building probably took place in 1680, at the time of the great Pueblo revolution against the Spanish priests and soldiers. It may be added, with regard to the Pueblos of the present day, who hardly number more than 8,000 souls, that, taking difference of language as a base, there are eight tribes, which occupy the following towns: * Vocabularies of all the Pueblo languages, except the Zuñi, were collected by the members of the expedition, each vocabulary embracing about two hundred words. Zuñis.-Zuñi, Natrias, Ojo de Pescado. Moquis.-Huatl-vi, Tsi-tsume-vi, Mushangene-vi, Shongoba-vi, She-baulavi, Oray-vi. Tanos.-Isleta, below Albuquerque; Isleta, below El Paso; Zandia. Taos.-Taos, (Indian name, Takhe,) Picoris. Querez.-Santa Ana, (Indian name, To-Mia,) San Felipe, San Domingo, Silla, (Indian name, Tsi-a,) Cochiti.' Kan-ayko or Si-stsi-mé.-Acoma, (Indian name, A-Ko,) Laguna, (Indian name, KanAyko,) Povate, (Indian name, Kvi-shti,) Moguino, Hasatch. Tehuas.-Nambé, Tesuque, Ildefonso, Pajoaque, San Juan, Santa Clara, Tehua, (with the Moqui-Pueblo in Arizona.) Jemez.-Jemos, (Pecos extinct.) The language of the Kau-Ayko tribe resembles closely that of the Querez tribe; and, on the other hand, the languages of the Tanos and Taos tribes are closely allied to each other. With these two exceptions the languages of these tribes differ so much that, in order to understand each other, those speaking them have to take recourse to the Spanish language. Buschmann, who made a specialty of the study of Indian languages, denies the existence of any relation between the different Pueblo languages, and also any relation between these and the Aztec language; but he evidently had only the scanty material then known of these languages-vocabularies not containing over forty words, (Zuñi excepted, of which in 1556 Lieutenant Whipple collected a long list)-from which to form his conclusions. In order to show that there are really relations, although limited, between not only the Pueblo languages, but also with the Aztec idiom, I take the word for "hand" as an example: In Aztec ma-itl means hand; in Yuta, mú. No one would assert that the repetition of the syllable ma is a mere accident. No doubt these Pueblo languages were derived from a common origin, like the widely-differing European languages from the Sauskrit; but time, measured by centuries and not by single years, has gradually effected changes, and to such a degree that to one who does not examine these languages very minutely, they appear devoid of any relation to each other. Respectfully submitted. Lieut. GEO. M. WHEELER, O. LOEW. Corps of Engineers. J 3. REPORT ON CERTAIN RUINS VISITED IN NEW MEXICO BY LIEUTENANT ROGERS BIRNIE, JR., THIRTEENTH UNITED STATES INFANTRY. UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, The evidences that there were former inhabitants in localities now entirely depopulated were numerous, being observed along the Cañon Cerresal, Cañon Largo, Cañon de Chaco, and the San Juan and Las Animas Rivers. Traveling through the Cañon Cerresal, they were first observed as rude walls built upon the rocks, at the top of the walls of the cañon, where these latter were from 150 to 200 feet in height. On September 16, 1874, I visited, with Mr. Rowe, a topographical station at the head of one of the branches of the Cañon Cerresal, where we found some very perfect specimens of old pottery, though no signs of any habitation. It is one of the highest points in quite a large area, a small-topped sandstone mesa about 100 by 40 feet, the upper terrace as it were of a series, and well-nigh inaccessible. It is difficult to conceive for what purpose this place could have been frequented, in the present aspect of the country, situated as it is probably twenty miles from any permanent source of water, unless, with the positions of the dwellings, it may tend to corroborate the idea that these people were driven ont of the country by roving tribes of Indians, and sought refuge in these naturally-fortified places. Returning to the party from this station, we visited one of the stone houses built upon the rocks above the side of the cañon. The ascent to the rock upon which it is built was by two pieces of wood about 10 feet long, with notches cut for steps and forming a rude ladder. There were six rooms, some nearly perfect, the walls of rough stone and roof made of pieces of cedar stretched horizontally and covered with earth; patches of plaster remained upon the walls, but much of the roof had fallen in; the ceilings low, not more than 7 feet above the ground; doors very small; broken pieces of crockery seen scattered about. On the next day (September 17) I visited another of these ruins, making the ascent of the rocks with considerable difficulty. Several small dwellings were found, nearly covering the space upon the rock, which descended very abruptly on every side. In one of these houses, just above a fire-place, and upon sticks stretching across the room, supported by being embedded in the wall on either side, I found the leg-bones of a man's skeleton; the remainder must have been carried away, as I could not find any of the other parts. Near the dwellings were several cavities in the rocks suitable for holding supplies of water, although they seemed to be natural formations. The rubbish on the floor was an inch or two thick. In the Cañon Largo, a few miles from its junction with the San Juan River, we found a curious mound in the valley, that had every appearance of having been constructed by man, from the heterogeneous substance that composed it as well as its shape, rooflike, with sloping ends, being about 100 feet long by 50 feet wide at the base, and 25 feet high. At either end were little circles of stones, and digging down through the sod, a quantity of black earth was found as though the place had been frequently used for tires. The most extensive ruius met with were on the right bank of the Las Animas River, about twelve miles above its junction with the San Juan. I had been previously informed of this, my informant stating that he had counted 517 rooms in one pueblo, On visiting the ruins we found what had once been, apparently, quite a town, with two main buildings and numerous small ones about them. One of the main buildings, situated nearest the river, extended to and was built into a bluff separated a few hundred yards from the river by a flat. The plan was rectangular with a small court on the south side, the court flanked on either side by two circular rooms or towers at the corners of the building; two more of these rooms at the other corners, and three through the center and parallel to the longer side of the building; the walls supporting the towers on either side of the court were square-cornered, but had re-entrant angles. The remainder of the building was divided into rectangular compartments apparently of three stories, the two upper ones nearly in ruins, on two sides of the building, which was about 150 by 100 feet; the wall was quite perfect and in places 25 feet in height still standing. (See Plate IX.) Entering a room nearly altogether in ruins, it was found connected with an interior one by a door-way 4 feet 4 inches and 2 feet 4 inches, cased with nicely-dressed soft sandstone about the size of an ordinary brick; the walls were 2 feet 4 inches thick, many of the stones being marked with crosses, (+) &c., and some with inscriptions, though these latter were nearly obliterated. The interior room was 14 feet 4 inches by 6 feet 4 inches, and the roof fallen in. An entrance was found to a lower room, apparently one of the lower story, through a door of about the same dimensions as the other mentioned; the lintel was composed of small round pieces of wood well cleaned, fitted, and bound together with withes; the dimensions of the room 14 feet 4 inches by 6 feet, and 7 feet high; the walls had been well plastered, and remained nearly intact, though covered on all sides with curious figures and signs scratched upon them. The floor must have been of earth; the ceiling was supported primarily by clean pine or spruce beams about 6 inches in diameter, and 30 inches apart; these were crossed by smaller ones of the same kind, and across these latter were split pieces, small and halfround, and fitting closely together, supporting the earth above. The room was in good condition, thongh sand had washed in and partly covered the floor. No entrance could be found to the numerous other rooms constituting this floor, except in one case where an interior wall was found broken through. This room was like the other, but higher and without plaster, the floor covered with debris fallen from above. Near the center of the building was a rectangular shaft about 8 feet by 6 feet. Through a hole already broken in the roof and by means of a rope I descended this about 12 feet to a flooring, the beams supporting which had given way and only part remained; a little below loose earth filled the shaft, but whether resting on another floor, or the ground, I could not tell. No connection was found between this and any of the rooms. I regretted that I could not reach the bottom, as I had here hoped to find entrances to those rooms which appeared to have none from the outside. Holes, as if for ventilation, but not large enough to admit a man, and now filled with dirt, seemed to extend through the exterior walls of the building in places. The other main building, which is the larger of the two, is about 200 yards to the west of this, and quite remarkable in plan. What was probably the principal part is on the north side, the roof fallen in and much debris about the exterior. We found a number of much larger rooms than in the other building, and interior walls at least |