Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/506

 to obstruct the view; the clear-cut and sharply defined peaks stand in an unbroken file, an army of Nature's monarchs, clad in Nature's livery, a uniform of perpetual green, and crowned with helmets of eternal snow.

We finally reached the summit—our objective point—and began winding our way around huge obelisks of sandstone, and through a perfect net-work of passages and crypt-like fissures. We felt as though we had entered the Cretan labyrinth, but, not so fortunate as Theseus, had no thread to guide us, until we came upon the first ancient habitation.

Climbing through a narrow crevice with some exertion, we observed a cave-like opening in the rock fronting us, and of course were but an instant in gaining an entrance, where we were delighted to find, upon examination, the evident handiwork of man.

Here was an apartment about six by eight feet in size, where nature had formed two sides and the sloping roof. One side had been left open, and the other, from the yet remaining fragments, showed plain evidences of having been roughly walled up with loose stones. A fissure in one corner of the room, leading out through the roof, showed traces of discoloration by fire, and digging down with some sticks through the rubbish, we found that corner had been used as a fireplace, and at a depth of eighteen inches we still found the wall with strong evidences of the action of heat on the stones, finally unearthing some charcoal, and from a repository in the wall about a half peck of chips of chalcedony: judging from this latter find that we were in the workshop of the former inhabitants of the place.

We were not prepared for excavating through the dust of ages which Time had caused to settle on the floor, so started out eager to find other places of habitation. Our search was rewarded by finding during: the afternoon some twelve or fifteen more houses or caves, many of them, however, especially those along the face of the cliffs, having nearly disappeared from the effects of the disintegration of the rocks.

We found no more dwellings as large as the workshop, the majority of them being very small, the rough traces of walls nearly always visible, but the caves so circumscribed in extent it seemed impossible that human beings could have lived in them. Yet each one had its fireplace plainly to be seen, and each one had certainly been at some time a dwelling or shelter from the elements.

Continuing our search, we also found two furnaces—primitive, 'tis true, but none the less furnaces—showing the effects of great heat, and a deposit of dirt-covered ashes several feet in depth. These furnaces were hollowed out of immense bolwdersbowlders [sic] by man or nature—we could not decide which, owing to the action of the fire—and the interior of each almost exactly resembled the interior of a Dutch oven, having in like manner a small orifice for draught.