The sites of several ruins in the Navaho National Monument,[8] which was created on his recommendation, have been indicated by Mr. William B. Douglass, United States Examiner of Surveys, General Land Office, on a map accompanying the President’s proclamation, and also on a recent map issued by the General Land Office. Although his report has not yet been published, he has collected considerable data, including photographs of Betatakin, Kitsiel (Keetseel), and the ruin called Inscription House, situated in the Nitsi (Neetsee) canyon. While Mr. Douglass does not claim to be the discoverer of these ruins, credit is due him for directing the attention of the Interior Department to the antiquities of this region and the desirability of preserving them. The two ruins[9] in Nitsi (Neetsee),[10] West canyon, are not yet included in the Navaho Monument, but according to Mr. Douglass these are large ones, being 300 and 350 feet long, respectively,[11] and promise a rich field for investigation. That these ruins will yield large collections is indicated by the fact that the several specimens of minor antiquities in a collection presented to the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Janus, the best of which are here figured (pls. 15-18), came from this neighborhood, possibly from one of these ruins. [Illustration: BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 50 PLATE 4 _a._ INTERIOR _b._ EXTERIOR RUIN A, SOUTHWEST OF MARSH PASS] The ruins in West canyon (pl. 2) are particularly interesting from the fact that the walls of some of the rooms are built of elongated cylinders of clay shaped like a Vienna loaf of bread. These “bricks” consist of a bundle of twigs enveloped in red clay, which forms a superficial covering, the “brick” being flattened on two faces. These unusual adobes were laid like bricks, and so tenaciously were they held together by clay mortar that in one instance the corner of a room, on account of undermining, had fallen as a single mass. The use of straw-strengthened adobe blocks is unknown in the construction of other cliff-houses, although the author’s investigations at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park revealed the use of cubical clay blocks not having the central core of twigs or sticks, and true adobes are found in the Chelly canyon and at Awatobi. The ruins in West canyon can be visited from either Bekishibito or Shanto, the approach from both of these places being not difficult. There is good drinking water in West canyon, where may be found also small areas of pasturage owned by a few Navaho who inhabit this region. The trail by which one descends from the rim of West canyon to the valley is steep and difficult.