the chambers
what appears to be earth from the surrounding bottoms has been flung
into the crevices, thus forming a natural mortar, and at the same time a
"first coat" of plaster of varying thickness. This in turn is covered
with a thin white layer (now of course turning into gray, yellow, and
flesh-red) much resembling our plaster, but whose composition I am
unable to determine. (Specimens of the mud, containing small gravel and
minute particles of mica, are sent with the other collections, also
fragments of the white coating for analysis.[108])

The woodwork proper appears not to have had any connection with the
strength or support of the walls, but simply to have been erected within
and among the walls as a scaffold for the ceilings, which are also the
floors of the higher stories. Upright posts of cedar and pine, stripped
of their bark, but not squared, are, as I have already shown, set inside
of the stone wall, at more or less even distances. As far as I could
ascertain, these distances are regulated by the size of the rooms. These
posts are coarsely hacked off at the upper end, and over them other
similar beams are laid longitudinally, sometimes fitted over the posts
with chips wedged in. Such is the case in a room in the northern wing of
the building marked _A_, of which I shall hereafter speak.[109]

On these longitudinal beams other ones rest, laid transversely, and
imbedded in the wall on the opposite side. On these again longitudinal
poles are placed, also at intervals varying according to the dimensions
of the chambers, and on them transversely, a layer of brush, or
splinters of wood, closely overlapping each other; and the whole is
capped by about .20 m.--8 in.--of common clay or soil. Pl. III., Fig. 1,
is a front view of the wooden scaffold in a lower story room, and of the
ceiling which it supports.

_a_, clay and lower seam of brush or splinters.

_b_, transverse poles or beams, in case the beams are lacking.

_c_, longitudinal beam.

_d_, upright posts.

In most cases, however, the beams are transverse and the poles
longitudinal, and this is where the beam (_c_) is lacking, as in the
interior apartments, where the ceiling appears as in Pl. III., Fig. 2:
_a_, clay; _b_, brush or splinters; _c_, poles; _d_, beams; _e_,
wall.[110]

The diameter of the upright posts is, on an average, 0.28 m.--11
in.,--but even sometimes as great as 0.33 m.--13 in.,--the longitudinal
and transverse beams are scarc