Canon of Chelly and the Navajos.

We are indebted to the kindness of a friend, for the perusal of the report of Lieutenant J. H. Simpson, of an expedition into the Navajo Country, in 1849, from which we copy his discription of the Canon of Chelly, in latitude 36° 09' 04 North, longtitude 109° 42' 30 West.*

The region watered by the Colorado and Gila is, in many respects, the most remarkable on the continent. The vallies of the Chaco and Chelly, tributaries of the Colorado, are strewed with ruins of a different order of civilization, from that now existing in the country; and differing far, as we are informed, from the ruins found in any other part of America.

The Navajos, the present inhabitants, though a different race from that which erected the Pueblos, possess many of the useful arts of civilization; and are far removed from the precarious condition of the hunter state. Why civilization should have been developed in a region so barren and forbidding sooner than in the extensive and fertile plains, and wooded vallies, of the great rivers and ocean coasts, is a problem of difficult solution. Lieutenant Simpson seems to incline to the opinion, entertained we believe by others, that the great table region, dividing the waters of the Pacific from those of the Atlantic has undergone a change in its physical condition, since it was first inhabited by man. And, indeed, the petrified stumps, and fallen trunks of large trees, found in places now absolutely sterile and treeless, would seem to favor this opinion. But, still the lofty mountain and deep canon, doubtless, present the same altitude and depression now, as when the dilapitated Pueblos were erected. We, therefore, conclude that it was the protection, that these natural objects afforded the inhaditants against the incursions of wandering and marauding tribes, that gave encouragement to the arts of civilization, in this region. Located in a place where they could defend themselves against the attacks of other tribes, and cut off from the pursuit of game beyond the limits of their fastnesses, agriculture, and other arts naturally grew up out of the necessities of their con

These observations were taken about two miles from the mouth of the Canon. The distance on the route travelled from Santa Fe to this point, was about 278 miles.

dition. And from similar causes may be traced the development of civilization in Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy and Yucatan.

If we suppose the ancient inhabihants of the Pueblos, to have been overcome by some powerful combination of the wandering tribes-"outside barbarians"-it would follow that their conquerers would be incapable of sustaining the arts to that degree of development in which they found them; and instead of occupying the Pueblos-like the northern hords which overrun Italy-they permitted the palaces inhabited by their predecessors to fall into ruins, while they erected hovels or tents for their own accomoda

tion.

September 5. &c.-This morning, a party, composed of Colonel Wasington, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Collins, Major Kendrick, Lieutenant Dickerson, the two brothers Kern, and myself, visited the head of the renowned Canon of Chelly, laying southwest about five miles distant from our last camp. This canon has been for a long time of distinguished reputation among the Mexicans, on account of its great depth and impregnability-the latter being not more due to its inaccessability than to the fort which it is said to contain. This fort, according to Caravahal, is so high as to require fifteen ladders to scale it, seven of which, as he says, on one occasion, he ascended, but not being permitted to go higher, he did not see the top of it.

On reaching the canon, we found it to more than meet our expectation-so deep did it appear, so precipitous its rocks, and so beautiful and regular the stratification. Its probable depth I estimate at about eight hundred feet. At its bottom a stream of water could be seen winding its way along it, the great depth causing it to appear like a mere riband.

As far as time would permit an examination, for a depth of about three hundred feet-I could descend no further, on accout of the wall becoming vertical-the formation appeared to be sandstone, horizontally stratified with drift conglomerate. At this depth I found protruding horizontally from the wall, its end only sticking out, a petrified tree of about a foot in diameter, a fragment of which I broke off as a specimen. How did this tree get there? I also picked up at this point, upon the shelf on which I was standing, a species of iron ore, probably red hematite. The colonel commanding returning to camp, after a cursory look at the canon, in order to put the troops in motion for the day's march, I had not the time necessary to make the full examination which I would have liked. I saw, however, enough to assure me that this canon is not more worthy of the attention of the lover of nature than it is of the mineralogist and geologist. The whole party returned to camp greatly pleased with this offset excursion,

and promised themselves still greater delight when, on their reach ing the mouth of the canon, they will have more time to ex amine it.

Sept. 8. Agreeably to orders of the colonel commanding, I left camp at 74 o'clock this morning to make a reconnaissance of the renowned Canon of Chelly. In addition to my assistants, the two Kerns and Mr. Champlin, there were in company an escort of about 60 men-Brevet Major Kendrick being in command, assisted by Captain Dodge. Lieutenants Ward, Dickerson, Jackson and Brown, as also Assistant Surgeon Hammond and Mr. Collins, accompanied the party. Our course for nearly two miles, as far as the mouth of the canon, was east of south, and up the valley of Chelley. The soil of this valley, which is generally very sandy, is in spots quite fertile-on an average, a belt of probably half a mile in breadth being planted in corn. The cane, also, I noticed growing very luxuriantly in places. The whole breadth of this valley is about three miles.

Reaching the mouth of the Canon of Chelly, we turned to the left to go up it. Its escarpment walls at the mouth we found low. Its bottom, which in places is as little as one hundred and fifty feet wide, though generally as wide as three or four hundred feet, is a heavy sand. The escarpment walls, which are a red amorphous sandstone, or rather friable, and show imperfect seams of stratification-the dip being slight, and towards the west.

Proceeding up the canon, the walls gradually attain a higher altitude, till, at about three miles from the mouth, they begin to assume a stupendous appearance. Almost perfectly vertical, they look as if they had been chiselled by the hand of art; and occasionally cizous marks, apparently the effect of the rotary attrition of contiguous masses, could be seen on their faces.

At the point mentioned, we followed up a left-hand branch of the canon-this branch being from one hundred and fifty to two hundred yards wide, and the enclosing walls continuing stupendous. Two or three patches of corn, intermingled with melons, pumpkins, and squashes, were met with on the way.

Half a mile up this branch, we turned to the right, up a secondary branch, the width of which was rather narrow. This branch shows rocks, probably as high as three hundred feet, almost perfectly vertical; and in some instances not discovering a seam in their faces from top to bottom. About half a mile up this branch, in the right-hand escarpment wall, is a hemispherical cave, canopied by some stupendous rocks, a small, cool, acceptable spring being sheltered by it. A few yards further, this branch terminates in an almost vertical wall, affording no pathway for the ascent or descent of troops. At the head of this branch I noticed two or three hackberry trees, and also the stramonium, the first plant of the kind we have seen.

Retracing our steps to the primary branch we had left, we followed it up to its head, which we found but two or three hundred yards above the fork-the side walls still continuing stupendous, and some fine caves being visible here and there within them. I also noticed here some small habitations, made up of natural overhanging rock, and artificial walls, laid in stone and mortar-thelatter forming the front portion of the dwelling.

Having got as far up the laternal branches as we could go, and not yet having seen the famous fort, we begann to believe that, in all probability, it would turn out to be a fable. But still we did not know what the main canon might yet unfold, and so we retrned to explore it above the point or fork at which we had left it. Starting from this point, our general course lay about southeast by east. Half a mile further, or three and a half miles from the mouth of the canon, on its left escarpment, I noticed a shelvingplace where troops (but not pack animals) could ascend and des

cend.

Less than a mile further, I observed. upon a shelf in the left-hand wall, some fifty feet above the bottom of the canon unapproachable except by ladders, the wall below being very nearly vertical-a small pueblo ruin, of a style of structure similar, to all appearances, to that found in the ruins on the Chaco. I also noticed in it a circular wall, which, in all probability, has been an estuffa. The width of the canon at this point is probably from two to three hundred yards wide, the bottom continuing sandy and level. And, what appears to be singular, the sides of the lateral walls are not only as vertical as natural walls can well be conceived to be, but they are perfectly free from a talus of debris, the usual concomitant of rocks of this description. Does not this point to a crack or natural fissure as having given origin to the canon, rather than to aqueous agents, which, at least at the present period, show an utter inadequacy as a producing cause?

About five miles from the mouth, we passed another collection of uninhabited houses, perched on a shelf in the left-hand wall. Near this place, in the bed of the canon, 1 noticed the ordinary Navajo hut, (a conical lodge,) and close by it a peach orchard. A mile further, observing several Navajos, high above us, on the verge of the north wall, shouting and gesticulating as if they were very glad to see us, what was our astonishment when they commenced tripping down the almost vertical wall before them as nimbly and dexterously as minuetdancers! Indeed, the force of gravity, and their descent upon a steep inclined plane, made such a kind of performance absolutely necessary to insure their equilibrium. All seemed to allow that this was one of the most wonderful feats they had ever witnessed.

Seven miles from the mouth, we fell in with some considerable pueblo ruins. These ruins are on the left or north side of the canon, a portion of them being situated at the foot of the escarpment wall, and the other portion upon a shelf in the wall immediately back of the other portion, some fifty feet above the bed of the canon. The wall in front of this latter portion being vertical, access to it could only have been obtained by means of ladders. The front of these ruins

measures one hundred and forty five feet, and their depth forty five. The style of structure is similar to that of the pueblos found on the Chaco the building material being of small, thin sandstones, from two to four inches thick, imbedded in mud mortar, and chinked in the facade with smaller stones. The present height of its walls is about eighteen feet. Its rooms are exceedingly small, and the windows only a foot square. One circular estuffa was all that was visible. For a sketch of these ruins, with the stupendous rocks in rear and overhanging them, see plate 53;* and for a sketch of the pottery picked up about them, see plate 54.

Half a mile above these ruins, in a re-ent ering angle of the canon, on its left side, are a peach orchard and some Navajo lodges. Proceeding still further up the canon, the walls, which yet preserve their red sandstone character, but which have increased in the magnificence of their proportions, at intervals present facades hundreds of feet in length, and three or four hundred in height, and which are beautifully smooth and vertical. These walls look as if they had been erected by the hand of art the blocks of stone composing thein not unfrequently discovering a length in the wall of hundreds of feet, and a thickness of as much as ten feet, and laid with as much precision, and showing as handsome and well-pointed and regular horizontal joints, as can be seen in the custom-house of the city of New-York.

About eight miles from the mouth of the canon, a small rill, which below this point had lost itself in the sandy bottom of the canon, appears above ground; and about five hundred yards further, on the right-hand side, is a lateral canon, in which we saw another peach orchard.

Having ascended the canon nine and a half miles, the horses of the Pueblos in company with us not being strong enough for a further exploration, there being no prospect of our seeing the much-talked-of presidio or fort of the Navajos, which had all along been represented to us as being near the mouth of the canon, and the reconnaisance having already been conducted further than Colonel Washington had anticipated would be found necessary, the expedition returned to camp, highly delighted with what they had seen. We found, however, the further we ascended it, the greater became the altitude of its enclosing walls-this altitude, at our point of returning, being (as I ascertained by an indirect measurement) five hundred and two feet. The length of the cannon is probably about twenty-five miles. Its average width, as far as we ascended it, may be estimated at two hundred yards. For a view of the canon, as seen from the lateral branch eight miles above its mouth, see plate 55.

Both in going up and returning through the canon, groups of Navajos and single persons were seen by us, high above our heads, gazing upon us from its walls. A fellow upon horseback, relieved as he was sharply against the sky, and scanning us from his elevation, appeared particularly picturesque. Whenever we met them in the canon, they appeared very friendly - the principal chief, Martinez, joining and accompanying us in our exploration. and the proprietors of the peach orchards bringing out blanket-loads of the fruit (at best ) See cut in this number.