Rock-Inscriptions—Ojo del Pescado.
EL MORO, OR INSCRIPTION ROCK.
Inscriptions—El Moro.
Plan of El Moro.
About eighteen miles south-east of the sources of the Zuñi River, but belonging as properly in this valley as any other, is a sandstone rock known as Inscription Rock, or to the Spaniards as El Moro, from its form. It is between two and three hundred feet high, with steep sides, which on the north and east are perpendicular, smooth, white, and covered near the base with both Spanish and native inscriptions. Specimens of the latter, as copied by Simpson, are shown in the cut. The former were all copied by the same explorer, but of course have no connection with the subject of this volume: they date back to 1606, but make no reference to any town or ruins upon or about the rock. The ascent to the summit is on the south and is a difficult one. The cut shows a plan of El Moro made by Möllhausen, the locality of the inscriptions being at a and b. The summit area is divided by a deep ravine into two parts, on each of which are found ruins of large edifices. Those on the southern—or, according to Simpson, on the eastern—division, B of the plan, form a rectangle measuring two hundred and six by three hundred and seven feet, standing in some places from six to eight feet high. According to Simpson the walls agree with the cardinal points, but Whipple states the contrary. The walls are faced with sandstone blocks six by fourteen inches and from three to eight inches thick, laid in mud-mortar so as to break joints; but the bulk of the wall is a rubble of rough stones and mud. Two ranges of rooms may be traced on the north and west sides, and the rubbish indicates that there were also some apartments in the interior court. Two rooms measured each about seven by eight feet. A circular estufa thirty-one feet in diameter was also noticed, and there were cedar timbers found in connection with the ruined walls; one piece, fifteen inches long and four inches in diameter was found still in place, and bore, according to Whipple, no signs of cutting tools. The remains across the ravine, A of the plan, are of similar nature and material, and the north wall stands directly on the brink of a precipice, being complete to a height of eight feet. There is a spring furnishing but a small amount of water at the foot of the cliff at d. Fragments of pottery are abundant here as elsewhere.[XI-47]
RUINS OF CHELLY CAÑON.