Having presented all that is known of antiquities upon the Gila and its tributaries, I pass to the Colorado, the western and northern boundary of the New Mexican territory. The banks of the Colorado Cañon, for the river forms no valley proper, are for the most part unexplored, and no relics of antiquity are reported by reliable authorities; indeed, from the peculiar nature of this region, it is not likely that any ruins ever, will be found in the immediate vicinity of the river.[XI-36]
On Bill Williams' Fork there is a newspaper report, resting on no known authority, of walls enclosing an area some eight hundred feet in circumference, still perfect to the height of six or eight feet.[XI-37] The only other traces of the former inhabitants found on this stream are painted cave and cliff pictures or hieroglyphics. Two caves have their walls and the surrounding rocks thus decorated; they are about a mile apart, near the junction of the Santa María, and one of them is near a spring. Many of the inscriptions appear very ancient, and some were painted on cliffs very difficult of access. The cut shows a specimen from the sketches made by Möllhausen. The streak which crosses the cut in the centre, extends to the left beyond the other figures, and only half its length is shown. This streak is red with white borders; the other figures are red, purple, and white.[XI-38]
Rock-Paintings—Bill Williams' Fork.
TRIBUTARIES OF THE COLORADO.
Leaving Bill Williams' Fork, and passing the Pueblo Creek ruins already described, which are not far distant, I follow the routes of Sitgreaves, Ives, and Whipple, north-westward to the Colorado Chiquito, a distance of about one hundred miles, striking the river at a point a hundred miles above its supposed junction with the main Colorado. In this region we again find numerous ruined buildings with the usual scattered pottery, respecting which our knowledge is derived from the explorers just named. The ruins occur at all prominent points, both near the river and away from it towards the west, at intervals of eight or nine miles, the exact location not being definitely fixed. The material employed here is stone, and some of the houses were three stories high. A view of one ruin as sketched by Sitgreaves is shown in the cut. On a rocky eminence were found by Whipple stone enclosures, apparently for defense. According to Mr Sitgreaves the houses resembled in every particular, save that no adobe was used, the inhabited Pueblo towns of New Mexico. His description, like that of Möllhausen and Whipple, would doubtless be much more complete and satisfactory, had they not previously seen the Pueblo towns and other ruins further east. Some of the ruins are far from water, and Sitgreaves suggests that the lava sand blown from the neighboring mountains may have filled up the springs which originally furnished a supply.
Ruin on the Colorado Chiquito.