[101] See [Plate I.], Fig. 5.
[102] When Mr. Louis Felsenthal of Santa-Fé came to New Mexico in 1855, and still later, in 1858, the time of the arrival of Mrs. Kozlowski, the roofs were still perfect in part.
[104] Pedro de Castañeda de Nagera, Relation du Voyage de Cibola, French translation, by Ternaux-Compans, 1838. Original written about 1560. Introduction, p. ix; part ii. cap. v. p. 176.
[105] Castañeda, Relation, i. cap. xii. p. 71; ii. cap. v. p. 176. Juan Jaramillo, Relation du Voyage fait à la Nouvelle Terre, app. vi. to Voyage de Cibola, p. 371. Fray Agustin de Vetancurt, Crónica de la Provincia del Santo Evangelio de México (edition of 1871), p. 323. Gaspar Castaño de la Sosa, Memoria del Descubrimiento cue ... hizo en el Nuevo México, siendo teniente del Gobernador y Capitan General del Nuevo-Reino de Leon, July 27, 1590, in vol. xv. of Documentos Inéditos de los Archivos de Indias, p. 244. The latter though, as well as Castañeda and Jaramillo, mentions evidently building A, but there cannot be the slightest doubt that B was erected for the same purpose; to wit, as a dwelling.
[106] They are evidently moulded. Their size is about 0.28 m. × 15 m.—11 in. × 6 in.—and straw is mixed with the soil. The appearance is very much as if the adobe had been put in as a "mending;" and I am decidedly of the opinion that the northern section is the latest, and erected after 1540.
[107] It is very much like the stone-work of the Moqui Pueblos in Arizona, according to the photographs in possession of the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, D. C.; and in some respects to the walls of the great house described by the Hon. L. H. Morgan, On the Ruins of an Ancient Stone Pueblo on the Animas River, Eleventh and Twelfth Reports of the Peabody Museum of Archæology, etc.; also to those figured by Dr. William H. Jackson, Tenth Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, 1878, plate lxii. fig. 1, from the Ruins of the Rio Chaco. Compare photograph No. 6. I am led to suspect that the greater or less regularity of the courses was entirely dependent upon the kind of stone on hand, and not upon the mechanical skill employed.
[108] I am just (Sept. 9) informed by Governor Wallace, that the Sierra de Tecolote, east of the ruins, contains probably gypsum, even in the form of alabaster. It is certain that nothing like lime-kilns or places where lime might have been burnt are found at any moderate distance from the ruins. The surrounding rocks, up to head of the valley and to the mesa, contain deposits of white, yellow, and red carbonates of lead, often copper-stained, and very impure, therefore proportionately light in weight. However, we have very positive information as to how they made their plaster, etc., in Castañeda, Voyage de Cibola, ii. cap. iv. pp. 168, 169. He says: "They have no lime, but make a mixture of ashes, soil, and of charcoal, which replace it very well; for although they raise their houses to four stories, the walls have not more than half an ell in width. They form great heaps of pine [thym] and reeds, and set fire to them; whenever this mass is reduced to ashes and charcoal, they throw over it a large quantity of soil and water, and mix it all together. They knead it into round blocks, which they dry, and of which they make use in lieu of stones, coating the whole with the same mixture." Substituting for the "round blocks" the stones found at Pecos, we have the whole process thoroughly explained, for indeed the mud contains bits of charcoal, as the specimens sent prove. The white coat, however, is not explained. I must state here, however, that I found the latter only in such parts of A, as well as of B, as appeared to be most recent in occupation and in construction. Further investigations at other pueblos may yet solve the mystery.
[109] See [Plate VIII.]
[110] Compare, in regard to the outer (western) wall of B, and also in regard to the inner wall, Lieut. James H. Simpson, Journal of a Military Reconnoissance from Santa Fé, New-Mexico, to the Navajo Country, Executive Document 64, 31st Congress, 1st section, 1850; plate 41, no. 5. Also, L. H. Morgan, On an Ancient Stone Pueblo on the Animas River, Peabody Museum Reports, 1880. The latter is particularly suggestive.