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Show BUSS OP A GREAT CITY. A few days ago we spoke of an interview in-terview with Capt. Mike Grey, and of his rich discoveries of mineral deposits at the head waters of the San Miguel Mig-uel and Doiores rivers. In the San Francisco "Chronicle" of Dec. 12th, we find the following account of the discovery of the ruins of a great city as narrated by Grey's party : One day while traveling up one of the impassable gorges, seeking a place were they could scalo its craggy Bides, Roberts discovered the ruins of what was once a largo and populous city. He had gone up the gorge about two miles ahead of the main party, when he saw some wild sheep and followed them for some distance. They turned out of the canyon and he, finding a place where ho could clamber up on foot, pursued them to tbo top. Suddenly Sud-denly emerging on the top of a mesa he was amazed at finding himself among the extended ruins of a great city, untrodden by foot of man for centuries, and spreading out miles before him. It covered an area of three Equaro miles and was enoloscd by a wall of sandstone, neatly quarried and dressed, ten or twelve feet thick, and which, judging by the debris, was fifteen or twenty Jeet high beib:e its fall. In most places it had crumbled away and fallen, and was covered with sand, but in many places it still stood six or eight f et above the sand banks which bad drifted around it. The entire area inside of this had at ono time been covered with houscs.built of solid sandstone, wbictj showed excellent masonry mas-onry in their construction. This ancient oiiy is situated in Arizona, about niuety miles from the boundary line between Utah and Arizona, atid tho same distance from the western Colorado line. It has the appearance of being an old Aztec city that ha.s bucn deserted for hundreds of years, and fallen to ruins It is entirely entire-ly of stone, and nut a stick of worked limber is to bo seen among the ruins. Nothing but tho walls aro standing, and none of them arc left inoro than eight or ten feet above ihcsand, which i.sciijht or ten feet dcop. Colonel Roberts is coclidcnt frnm the appearance appear-ance of tho walls that many of tho houst s wero two or threo stories high, but there was not enough of them It ft standing to eihblo him to judge accurately accu-rately of the style of architecture adopted by the ancient builders of this city. Cuiolel Huberts estimates that there were at least 20,0 JO houses in tho city. It was laid out in plazas, with paths or small streets from one to the other. There was evidently ono main highway extending through tho center of tho city. Tins has beeo cut down by the winter torrents into a yawning cham, three hundred feet wide. It is evident that this chasm has been wafched out since the city was built, because the walla of many of the houses aro oow overhanging the brink, and it ib not reasonable to su oppose that a city would have been built on each side of such a chasm. Tho walls still bear traces of many hieroglyphics, cut deep into them, showing various Indian cuitomj acd fupersiitiony. Thoru aro oImj tho ruins of stalely monument?, built of square block sand stone, well quarried and showing good masonry, which are worked with notch-rs notch-rs and crosses cut into them at regular intervals. As beforo intimated, tho city was built upou a mcs.u, similar to thoso already al-ready dci-cribed; tho ruiiiB are covered with saud, which Colonel Unbelts ays ho i confident has blown (hero from the desert, a t-hort distance to tho south, since the citv was deserted, lio thinks this was a Icrtiio tragi of coun try when the oity was built, and that the inhabitants wero forced to desert it on account of the high winds which blow the sand in thero, after the waters wa-ters with which it is believed the desert was once covered receded. This sand has become packed and solidified by the rains, and is almost as hard as the sandstone. There is a largo ditch, now partly tilled up, running from tho city away back into the hills, ten to fourteen miles from the city, and it is believed, this was made for tho purpose of conveying con-veying water to the city for irrigating the ground and for other purposes. Under tho sand is a layer of six or eight feet of blue olay. Below this is a stratum of white, hard -sandstone, the depth of which has never been ascertained. The walls of the houses aro rough and worn by the storms of oenturies, which have worn into the soft places in the sandstono.evcn in tho walls overhanging the preoipioo. The sand i stone does not bear any mark of fire, and Col. Roberts is confident that the sand storms which have nearly buried tho oity rendered it uninhabitable and compelled its ancient inhabitants to desert de-sert it. No bones, implements or relies rel-ies of any kind were found, with the ' exception of somo pieces of pottery of a dark color. These wero embelishcd with paintingd of flowers and ornamental orna-mental figures in blue colors. The coloring col-oring matter is of a blue mineral substance sub-stance of some kind, which the chemist of Santa Fe, to whom some of the pottery pot-tery was shown, could not dearly define. It is perfectly indelible, and pieces of the pottery which have been exposed to tho storms which have worn away the solid masonry of the walls of the city show the colors fresh and bright to all appearances as when new. The pottery itself has been found to be perfectly fire-proof upon trial in crucibles cruci-bles and furnaces, and if the secret of its manufacture could be discovered, it would be worth millions of dollars to the poeoessor, and the material would be invaluable for tho lining of safes and similar purposes. |