Show The Cliff Dwellers Fifty miles west of this place is a little station called Cosnino It is suddeniy lifted into importance from its proximity to a vast canyon once the abode of cUff dwellers An hours walk from the station and we stand upon the brink of a chasm so deep that the eye can hardly see its bottom Actual measurement makes it 2000 feet deep The width varies from 200 feet at the bottom to 1500 feet at the top The sides are solid rock but in layers of perhaps thirty feet in depth each layer having a projecting or shelving edge extending from six to twenty feet It is under the shelving work that the cliff dwellers built their abodes Some wise men say that the projections are excavations exca-vations for the purpose of building made by these same cliff dwellers but to my mind the work is to j vast to admit of such a theory On the opposite side from where we stood we counted seven tiers of these dwellings It is notable that none are lower than COO feet from the bottom The canyon is irregular in its formation but from I our standpoint we could count mere than 200 of these dwellings and there can be no doubt that this was a city of many I thousand inhabitants To what age of the world this race belonged or i the character and nature of the peo1 pig who built these cities neither history nor tradition gives a trace I We made a perilous descent visit ing several tiers of these houses The front and side walls are of solid masonry and in state of good preservation pre-servation Doors three feet by 1 eighteen inches still remain show I fag that these houses were for the aC1 comodaticn of a very small race The opening was so small that it could be quickly closed by Its inmates against an invading enemy The canyon was once no doubt filled to the depth of 100 feet by running water for no houses appear below that level The approach and re = treat of these dwellers were in boa s or canoes All my theories are guoss work sutB company of learned gentlemen from the Smithsonian institute aJ e to pay their respects to this newest wonder and their report may make everything clear as to what age or race thisi e ple belonged Wlastow A T Letter to N a Hun |