XI,
illustrating a portion of the outer wall of the Fire House, the tablets
are fewer in number and thinner, their use predominating in the
horizontal joints, as in the best of the old examples, but not to the
same extent. Fig. 35 illustrates the inner face of an unplastered wall
of a small house at Ojo Caliente, in which the modern method of using
the chinking stones is shown. This example bears a strong resemblance to
the Payupki masonry illustrated in Pl. XV in the irregularity with which
the chinking stones are distributed in the joints of the wall. The same
room affords an illustration of a cellar-like feature having the
appearance of an intentional excavation to attain a depth for this room
corresponding to the adjoining floor level, but this effect is due
simply to a clever adaptation of the house wall to an existing ledge of
sandstone. The latter has had scarcely any artificial treatment beyond
the partial smoothing of the rock in a few places and the cutting out of
a small niche from the rocky wall. This niche occupies about the same
position in this room that it does in the ordinary pueblo house. It is
remarkable that the pueblo builders did not to a greater extent utilize
their skill in working stone in the preparation of some of the irregular
rocky sites that they have at times occupied for the more convenient
reception of their wall foundations; but in nearly all such cases the
buildings have been modified to suit the ground.
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