in the faces of the prevailing formation were attractive places to build in for several reasons, one of which may have been protection from assault and the weather, and another the frequent presence of springs at the back of these cavities. These springs have almost vanished, in many cases have entirely disappeared, owing to slightly drier conditions now prevailing. But I have frequently noticed at the back part of many of the cavities that had no ruins, or few ruins, to cover it up, a moisture that might at times increase to a dripping, or even flowing, that would furnish enough water for the daily supply of a considerable Amerind village. The construction is the same as other Pueblo houses of stone. [Illustration: INTERIOR OF WOOD AND EARTH IGLU] [Illustration: AN ALASKA ESKIMO WINTER HOUSE OF WOOD AND EARTH, POINT BARROW] [Illustration: STONE STEPS AT ORAIBI] The inhabited pueblos, like the ruins, usually consist of a number of rooms built adjoining or on top of each other, like a lot of square boxes placed in rows or in a pyramidal pile, or like a series of steps, with the total height at the back often straight down. One or two single-room houses are first built, and then additions are made from time to time till the pile grows to a considerable height; three or four stories.[197] Groups of these groups built near each other form courts between. The lower tier of rooms, in olden times, was not entered from the ground, but from the roof through a hatchway, a ladder leading up on the outside and down on the inside. The upper rooms, or houses, were entered from the roofs of the lower ones; that is, the roofs of the lower rooms formed the floors of the upper ones, and also balconies in front of the rooms. I occupied for a time one of these upper rooms in Tewa, on the “East Mesa” at the Moki towns, and I found the roof in front of my door a delightful place, commanding a view of the whole mesa and a hundred miles beyond. I could also reach the top of my house easily, by a sort of stairway formed on the edge of the prolonged wall that separated me from my neighbour, and as this was the summit of the village my view was superb. Such stairways are common in all the villages. The ladders by which the various roofs are reached are now much like our own, but rudely made, and the upper ends are often very long, extending in many cases far above the house-top. The walls, about a foot thick, are of stone slabs laid in adobe mortar, and are generally built up by the women, who take their own time to the work, adding a few stones whenever they feel like it. Beams of small tree-trunks, six to eight inches in diameter, form the basis of the flat roof.[198] They are laid across the top of the walls and the ends, if too long, usually allowed to project beyond. These are covered with smaller poles laid about a foot apart, and on these are spread slender willows or reeds, with a layer of grass or twigs next, on which