in this region, are sometimes violent. There is
evidence that the present height of the walls is nearly the original
height, in other words, that the loss from surface erosion in several
centuries has been trifling, although numerous opinions to the contrary
have been expressed by causal observers. The eastern wall has suffered
more from this cause than the others; a belt on the northern half,
apparently softer than the remainder of the wall, has been eaten away to
a depth of nearly a foot. The interior wall faces are in good condition
generally, except about openings and in places near the top.

Evidences of the original flooring are preserved in several of the
rooms, especially in the north room. The flooring conformed to the
pueblo type in the use of a series of principal beams, about 3 inches in
diameter, above which was a secondary series smaller in size and placed
quite close together, and above this again a layer of rushes with a
coating of clay. All the walls show evidences of the principal series of
beams in the line of holes formed by their ends where they were embedded
in the walls. In the south wall, in parts of the east wall high up on
the level of the upper roof, and in parts of other walls a few stumps of
floor beams remained. These specimens of aboriginal woodwork have
survived only because they are not in sight from the ground, and their
existence therefore was not suspected by the tourists. Evidence of the
other features of the floor construction can be seen on the walls in
places where they have left an imprint, as described in the memoir
previously cited.

No single opening remains intact, as the lintels have been removed from
every one of them. This is particularly unfortunate, for openings at
their best are an element of weakness in a wall, and here each opening,
after the lintel was removed, became, as it were, a center of weakness
from which the destruction of the wall mass gradually proceeded further
and further.

PLANS FOR THE REPAIRS

The plans for the repair of the ruin and its preservation included the
reservation of the area covered by remains and, if possible, its
inclosure, for within that area are exhibited all the various degrees of
decay and disintegration which clearly link the comparatively well
preserved Casa Grande with the numerous almost obliterated ruins along
the Gila and the Salt, whose vestiges will become even less distinct as
time passes and cultivation increases.