In July, 1897, Professor William Libbey, of Princeton University, made the ascent of the mesa with what he describes as almost superhuman effort. He remained for two hours on the summit and was of the opinion that there was “not the slightest indication that the top of the Mesa had ever been the prehistoric home of the Ácomas or had ever been inhabited at all,” since no bits of pottery or traces of construction of any sort were visible. Consequently he named it “The Disenchanted Mesa.”[140] Libbey admitted, however, that he made no exploration of the southwest cove up which the ancient trail was reputed to have passed, nor of the talus at its foot. As soon as Libbey published his account a new interest was aroused in its history, and the Bureau of Ethnology requested Hodge, who was at work in Arizona, to go to Katzímo and see what he could find. Accordingly, in September of that year Hodge made his second ascent, and since then George Wharton James has made further explorations. Setting aside, then, the slight allusions of Bandelier and Libbey, let us look at the experiences of the other three, who, on the whole, agree in their deductions, though with some inevitable minor variations of detail. James says very reasonably that, if the whole Katzímo tradition is discredited, all Indian tradition is discredited and more obstacles added to the unravelling of the obscurities of prehistoric Indian life. But he also makes the good point that evidences of human presence and of human occupation of any place are quite separate and diverse things. [Illustration: THE ASCENT OF THE GREAT CLEFT OF KATZÍMO 1897 _Reprinted from the Century Magazine by permission of the Century Co._] Hodge’s first experience had taught him that light extension ladders and some half-inch rope would suffice to enable him to scale the sixty feet of cliff which unaided he had been obliged to forego in 1895. Accordingly, when he reached Laguna, he secured as companions a United States surveyor of long residence in the region, Major G. H. Pradt, A. C. Vroman, a well-known photographer of Pasadena, Mr. H. C. Hayt of Chicago, and two Laguna Indian boys. They made their camp in some cedars at the base of the cleft on the southwest, and while the ladder and other equipment were got into position for the climb, Major Pradt determined “that the elevation of the foot of the talus is 33 feet above the plain; the apex of the talus 224 feet, and the top of the highest pinnacle on the summit of the mesa overlooking the great cleft is 431 feet above the same level.” [141]