The structure is about 50 feet in height by 60 feet in width, built in the form of a crescent, with the convex part against the cliff. It is five stories high, the fifth story being back under the cliff and protected by a masonry wall 4 feet high, so that it is not visible from the outside. The walls of the structure are of masonry and adobe, plastered over on the inside and outside with mud. The cliff forms the back part of the structure, the front and outer walls being bound to the cliff with round timbers 6 to 10 inches in diameter, the outside ends projecting through the outer walls and the other end placed against the cliff. These timbers serve as joists for the several stories, the floors being made by placing small poles at right angles to the

Montezuma Castle National Monument, Ariz., embracing the NW. NW. sec. 16, the N. NE. and NE. NW. sec. 17, T. 14 N., R. 5 E., Gila and Salt River meridian; created December 8, 1906.

larger timbers and covering with a thatch of willows, on top of which there is a covering of mud and stones 8 inches thick.

From the appearance of the walls now standing, the structure orig inally contained 25 rooms, 19 of which are now in fairly good condi tion. Besides the main building, there are many cave chambers below and at each side of the castle. These small chambers are neatly walled up in front and have small doorways.

The rooms average about 6 by 8 feet in size and are about 7 feet high. They are connected by small doorways, and the outside rooms have small peepholes, from which a view of the outside can be had. These were probably used for portholes through which arrows could

be shot.

H

The timbers in the building are hacked on the ends and were doubtless cut with stone axes. They are in a good state of preservation, no decay having set in owing to the dry climate. The main part of the structure is sheltered by the overhanging cliff, and the walls, thus protected from storms, are in good condition. The front part of the structure is not so well protected and the walls are wearing away and crumbling.

The method employed by the public in reaching the castle is principally by automobile from Prescott, a small city on the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railroad, a branch of the Santa Fe system, 54 miles to the west, or from Jerome, Ariz., on a branch line of the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railroad, 27 miles distant from the monument. A fine automobile road has recently been constructed from Prescott to Camp Verde, a small settlement 3 miles west of the castle, and the trip from Prescott to the castle and return can now be comfortably made in one day. The castle can also be reached from Flagstaff, a station on the main line of the Santa Fe Railway, 58 miles to the north. The roads, however, are very heavy, and the trip can not be made via automobile without considerable difficulty. Tourists frequently make the trip from Flagstaff by team, as it affords an opportunity of going through the large pine forest lying to the south of Flagstaff. There are two garages in Prescott making a specialty of taking parties to the castle. Each furnishes a driver who acts as a guide.

EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENT.

A feature of great historic interest and importance is the so-called El Morro or Inscription Rock, some 35 miles almost due east of Zuni Pueblo in western-central New Mexico.

El Morro is an enormous sandstone rock rising a couple of hundred feet out of the plain and eroded in such fantastic forms as to give it the appearance of a great castle, hence its Spanish name. A small spring of water at the rock made it a convenient camping place for the Spanish explorers of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, and the smooth face of the "castle" well adapted it to receive the inscriptions of the conquerors of that early period.

The earliest inscription is dated February 18, 1526. Historically the most important inscription is that of Juan de Onate, a colonizer of New Mexico and the founder of the city of Santa Fe, in 1606. It was in this year that Onate visited El Morro and carved this inscription on his return from a trip to the head of the Gulf of California. There are 19 other Spanish inscriptions of almost equal importance, among them that of Don Diego de Vargas, who in 1692 reconquered the Pueblo Indians after their rebellion against Spanish authority in 1680.

It is not too much to say that no rock formation in the West or perhaps in the world is so well adapted to the purpose for which this table of stone was used-at least history does not record any collection of similar data. Here are records covering two centuries, some of which are the only extant memoranda of the early expeditions and explorations of what is now the southwestern part of the United States. On these smooth walls, usually under some projecting

stratum, inscriptions were cut by the early conquerors and explorers, which have made this rock one among the most interesting objects on the continent.

Here, in this remote and uninhabited region, in the shadows of one of Nature's most unique obelisks, wrapped in the profound silence of the desert, with no living thing to break the stillness, it is hard to realize that 300 years ago these same walls echoed the clank of steel harness and coats of mail; that with the implements of Spanish conquest the pathfinders in the New World were carving historical records upon the eternal rock.

Locally Inscription Rock and El Morro are known as separate and distinct monumental rocks. The latter, translated The Castle, is the rock standing out in bold relief to the east, while Inscription Rock is the name applied to the formation to the west, which is a part of the mesa. On the south side, in the angle formed by the two, one extending east and the other south, is a great chamber or cavern, a natural amphitheater where secure refuge from storm or human foe could easily be secured. It is here, too, that the only spring within many miles wells up as if to make the natural fortification doubly secure. Upon these walls are many of the best preserved Spanish inscriptions, although there are quite a number 200 feet east, under the shadows of a stately pine tree and on the north side of El Morro. Most of them are as plain and apparently as legible as the day they were written; especially is this true of the older ones, carved during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The existence of extensive, prehistoric ruins on the very summit of Inscription Rock is another feature of interest. On the top of the rock a deep cleft or canyon divides the western end of the formation. On each of these arms is the remnant of large communal houses or pueblos. Some of the walls are yet standing and the ground plans of the structures are well defined. That on the south arm, and almost overhanging the cavern and spring, is approximately 200 by 150 feet. Some of the buildings must have been more than one story in height. The remarkable natural defenses of the site and the existence of the spring doubtless induced the builders to select this odd location. At some distant day it may be desirable to excavate these ruins and thus add to this historic spot attractions for the scientist as well as the general public who are interested in scenic and natural curiosities. This monument is usually visited from Thoreau or Gallup, N. Mex., the points from which access is most easily had. These points are on the main line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, and the visit to the monument is made by team and camp outfit. The trip is made in four days, in five for better comfort, and the cost for team, mountain hack, and driver, not including cost of provisions and feed of team, is from $6 to $8 per day. Good livery may be had at both of said points.

The main (Chicago to San Francisco) line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway is the only railroad through the district, and one would have to travel hundreds of miles overland to reach the monument by any other railroad. The monument is approximately 40 miles by stage from Thoreau, N. Mex., and 55 miles by like conveyance from Gallup, N. Mex.

The country traversed in a visit from Gallup or Thoreau is a high, rolling plateau of fair scenic beauty. Plenty of water holes are

present along the road and firewood can be had in abundance at most any place. Some forest is encountered on the road from Gallup. The monument can be visited at all seasons of the year, the summer, of course, being the most delightful time. The winters in the section are not cold or severe, and visits could be made at that time comfortably. A visit to this monument can be enlivened by incorporating with it a trip to the Pueblo of the Zuni Indians, there visiting the United States Indian school and village. This visit can be made without detouring any extent while going to the monument. The village mentioned is spoken of in the records of the visits of the first Spanish explorers to the region in the latter part of the fifteenth and first part of the sixteenth centuries, and is the oldest continuously occupied Pueblo Indian village in existence so far as is known.

El Morro National Monument, N. Mex., embracing the S. NE. and N. SE. sec. 6, T. 9 N., R. 14 W., New Mexico meridian; created December 8, 1906.

These remarkable relics of an unknown people embrace numerous communal or pueblo dwellings built of stone, among which is the ruin known as Pueblo Bonito, containing, as it originally stood, 1,200 rooms and being the largest prehistoric ruin yet discovered in the Southwest. Numerous other ruins, containing from 50 to 100 or more rooms, are scattered along Chaco Canyon and tributaries for a distance of about 14 miles and upon adjacent territory to the east, south, and west of Chaco Canyon many miles farther. The most important of these ruins are as follows: Pueblo Bonito, Chettro Kettle, Arroyo, New Alto, Old Alto, Kin-Klet Soi, Casa Chiquita, Penasco Blanco, Kin-Kla-tzin, Hungo Pavis, Unda Vidie, Weji-gi, Kim-me-ni-oli, Kin-yai, Casa Morena, and Pintado.

But little excavating has been done upon this monument, and what has been done was done for the most part more than 10 years ago.

The ruins of the monument therefore are in good condition. These ruins are the principal features of the monument; in fact, it might be said are the only features thereof. The fact that but little excavating has been done in them leaves the monument in condition for preservation of the ruins practically in their entirety for such historical purposes as imparting ideas of the life of the peoples who inhabited them, their development, etc.

The monument can only be reached by team, mountain hack, and camping outfit from Farmington, N. Mex., on the Denver & Rio

Chaco Canyon National Monument, N. Mex., embracing secs. 7 and 8 and 16 to 29, inclusive, T. 21 N., R. 10 W.; secs. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 to 14, inclusive, and 17, 19, 20, and 30, T. 21 N., R. 11 W.; S. sec. 12, T. 20 N., R. 8 W.; SE. sec. 32, T. 21 N., R. 12 W.; SE. sec. 28, T. 17 N., R. 12 W.; SE. sec. 17, T. 17 N., R. 10 W.; New Mexico principal meridian; created March 11, 1907.

Grande Railroad, 65 miles to the north, and from Gallup or Thoreau, N. Mex., on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, 75 miles and 65 miles, respectively, to the south. This service may be procured at from $6 to $8 per day, with driver, exclusive of the cost of feed and subsistence.

There are no accommodations for the public at or near this monument, and visitors must resort to camping.

The trip by team and camp outfit is suggested, and such a trip from the points mentioned will consume from two to three days on the road each way. On such a trip the driver arranges for camping at certain water holes at night, and after arrival at the ruins there is not much trouble to find water. Wood is scarce on the ruins, but coal may be gotten from a mine 4 miles distant from Pueblo Bonito, providing one is equipped to dig the same. The country traversed is a high, rolling, and broken plateau, carrying with it the scenic beauty and attractiveness of immense waste of land.