from
which its crumbling walls are still visible (plate CVIII).

When compared with the masonry of unmodified pueblo ruins the walls of
the mission may be designated massive, and excavation at their
foundations was very difficult on account of the great amount of
debris which had fallen about them. With the limited force of laborers
at my command the excavations could not be conducted with a great
degree of thoroughness.

In the middle of what I supposed to have been the main church there
was much sand, evidently drift, and in it I sank a trench 10 feet
below the surface without reaching anything which I considered a
floor. We found in excavations at the foundation of the church walls
fragments of glass, several copper nails, a much-corroded iron hook, a
copper bell pivot, and fragments of Spanish pottery. From the
character of these objects alone there is no doubt in my mind of the
former existence of Spanish influence, and the method of construction
of the mission walls and the addition constructed of adobe containing
chopped straw, substantiate this conclusion. Supposing, from the
architecture and orientation of other New Mexican missions, that the
altar was at the western end, opposite the entrance to the church, I
sank a trench along the foundation of the wall on that side, but
encountered such a mass of fallen stone at that point that I found it
impossible to make much progress, and the fact that the floor was more
than 10 feet below the surface of the central depression led me to
abandon, as impossible with my little band of native excavators, the
laying bare of the floor of the church.

[Illustration: FIG. 255--Ground plan of San Bernardino de Awatobi]

The ground plan (figure 255) of the mission resembles that of the Zuni
church, and is not unlike the plans of the churches in the Rio Grande
pueblos. The tall buttresses, which rise 15 or 20 feet above the trail
up the mesa on the southern corner, are, I believe, remnants of
towers which formerly supported a balcony. During a previous visit to
Tusayan I obtained fragments[72] of the ancient bell, which are now on
exhibition in the Hemenway section of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge.

The stone walls of the mission were rarely dressed or carefully
fitted, the interstices being filled in with loose rubble laid in
adobe. There was apparently a gallery over the entrance to the
building overlooking many smaller buildings, which evidently were the
quarters of the