This completes my account of remains on the Colorado Chiquito, and I pass to the next and last tributary of the Colorado within the territory covered by this chapter—the San Juan, which flows in an eastwardly course along the boundary line between Arizona and New Mexico on the south, and Utah and Colorado on the north. The valley of the main San Juan has been but very slightly explored, but probably contains extensive remains, judging from what have been found on some of its tributaries. Padres Dominguez and Escalante went in 1776 from Santa Fé north-westward to Utah Lake, and noticed several ruins which it is impossible to locate, before crossing the Colorado. I shall have occasion in the following chapter to notice some important ruins lately discovered on the northern tributaries of the San Juan, in the southern part of Colorado and Utah.[XI-48]
The two chief tributaries of the San Juan from the south are the Chelly and Chaco, flowing through deep cañons in the heart of the Navajo country. On both of these streams, particularly the latter, very important ruins have been discovered and described by Mr Simpson, who explored this region in 1849.
The Chelly cañon for a distance of about twenty-five miles is from one hundred and fifty to nine hundred feet wide, from three hundred to five hundred feet deep, and its sides are almost perpendicular. Simpson explored the cañon for eight miles from its mouth, which does not correspond with the mouth of the river. In a branch cañon of a character similar to that of the main stream he found several small habitations formed by building walls of stone and mortar in front of overhanging rocks. Some four miles up the main cañon he saw on a shelf fifty feet high and only accessible by means of ladders a small ruin of stone, much like those on the Chaco yet to be described. Seven miles from the mouth another ruin was discovered on the north side as shown in the cut. It was built partly on the bottom of the cañon, and partly like the one last mentioned, on a shelf fifty feet high with perpendicular sides. The walls measure forty-five by a hundred and forty-five feet, are about eighteen feet high in their present state, and are built of sandstone and mortar, having square openings or windows. A circular estufa was also found in connection with these cliff-dwellings. Fragments of pottery were not lacking, and specimens were sketched by Mr Simpson.[XI-49]
Ruin in the Chelly Cañon.
Eastward from the Chelly, at a distance of about a hundred miles, is the Chaco, a parallel tributary of the San Juan, on which are found ruins perhaps the most remarkable in the New Mexican group. Lieut. Simpson is the only one who has explored this valley, or at least who has left a record of his exploration. The ruins are eleven in number, situated with one exception on the north bank of the stream, within a distance of twenty-five miles in latitude 36° and longitude 108°.
RUINS OF THE CHACO.