Occasionally grassy levels are seen that for a few weeks in early summer
are richly carpeted with multitudes of delicate wild flowers. The beauty
of these patches of gleaming color is enhanced by contrast with the
forbidding and rugged character of the surroundings; but in a very short
time these blossoms disappear from the arid and parched desert that they
have temporarily beautified. These beds of bloom are not seen in the
immediate vicinity of the present villages, but are unexpectedly met
with in portions of the neighboring mesas and canyons.
After crossing the 6 or 7 miles of comparatively level country that
intervenes between the mouth of Keam's Canyon and the first of the
occupied mesas, the toilsome ascent begins; at first through slopes and
dunes and then over masses of broken talus, as the summit of the mesa is
gradually approached. Near the top the road is flanked on one side by a
very abrupt descent of broken slopes, and on the other by a precipitous
rocky wall that rises 30 or 40 feet above. The road reaches the brink of
the promontory by a sharp rise at a point close to the village of Hano.
METHODS OF SURVEY.
Before entering upon a description of the villages and ruins, a few
words as to the preparation of the plans accompanying this paper will
not be amiss. The methods pursued in making the surveys of the inhabited
pueblos were essentially the same throughout. The outer wall of each
separate cluster was run with a compass and a tape measure, the lines
being closed and checked upon the corner from which the beginning was
made, so that the plan of each group stands alone, and no accumulation
of error is possible.
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