Whatever may have been the fate of this ancient people their destruction must be sought in natural causes rather than by human warfare. An adverse fate probably cut off their water supply and laid waste their productive fields. With their crops a failure and all supplies gone what else could the people do but either starve or move, but as to the nature of the exodus history is silent. Just how ancient these works are might be difficult to prove, but they are certainly not modern. The evidence denotes that they have existed a long time. Where the water in a canal flowed over solid rock the rock has been much worn. Portions of the old ditches are filled with lava and houses lie buried in the vitreous flood. It is certain that the country was inhabited prior to the last lava flow whether that event occurred hundreds or thousands of years ago. It is claimed that the Pueblo Indians and cliff dwellers are identical and that the latter were driven from their peaceful valley homes by a hostile foe to find temporary shelter among the rocks, but such a conclusion seems to be erroneous in view of certain facts. The cliff dwellings were not temporary camps, as such a migration would imply, but places of permanent abode. The houses are too numerous and well constructed to be accounted for on any other hypothesis. A people fleeing periodically to the cliffs to escape from an enemy could not have built such houses. Indeed, they are simply marvelous when considered as to location and construction. The time that must necessarily have been consumed in doing the work and the amount of danger and labor involved--labor in preparing and getting the material into place and danger in scaling the dizzy heights over an almost impassible trail, it seems the boldest assumption to assert that the work was done by a fleeing and demoralized mob. Again, it would be a physical impossibility for a people who were only accustomed to agricultural pursuits to suddenly and completely change their habits of life such as living among the rocks would necessitate. Only by native instinct and daily practice from childhood would it be possible for any people to follow the narrow and difficult paths which were habitually traveled by the cliff dwellers. It requires a clear head and steady nerves to perform the daring feat in safety--to the truth of which statement modern explorers can testify who have made the attempt in recent years at the peril of life and limb while engaged in searching for archaeological treasures.