Here the projecting stones are of singularly regular and symmetrical
form, and receive very little artificial treatment. Their extreme
thinness makes it easy to trim off the projecting corners and angles,
reducing them to such a form that they can be laid in close contact.
Thus laid they furnish an admirable protection against the destructive
action of the violent rains. The stones are usually trimmed to a width
corresponding to the thickness of the walls. Of course where a
projecting cornice is built, it can be made, to some extent, to conform
to the width of available coping stones. These can usually be procured,
however, of nearly uniform width. In the case of the overhanging
cornices the necessary projection is attained by continuing either the
main roof beams, or sometimes the smaller poles of the second series,
according to the position of the required cornice, for a foot or more
beyond the outer face of the wall. Over these poles the roofing is
continued as in ordinary roof construction with the exception that the
edge of the earth covering is built of masonry, an additional precaution
against its destruction by the rains. In many places the adobe
plastering originally applied to the faces of these cornices, as well as
to the walls, has been washed away, exposing the whole construction. In
some of these instances the face of the cornice furnishes a complete
section of the roof, in which all the series of its construction can be
readily identified.
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