-8
in.--wide, and two sides, placed vertically east and west of the
base,--all three resting against the north wall of the room. Pl. III.,
Fig. 4, is a diagram of the room, the floor timbers, and the hearth.

The basal plate was covered with 0.10 m.--4 in.--of very white ashes,
which I have also secured, and the rear of the hearth, which is formed
by the original "first coat" of earth daubed over the wall, is
thoroughly baked by the heat produced in front of it, as the samples
sent will show.[111]

Of course, I looked at once for an opening where the smoke arising from
the hearth, etc., could have escaped. I am sorry to say, however, that I
utterly failed in finding anything like a chimney,--not only in _B_, but
in all the other buildings. Still, in the ruined condition of the place,
this is no proof of their non-existence.[112]

I will refer to subsequent pages to such articles of mechanical use and
of wearing apparel which I was fortunate enough to meet. I shall also
return hereafter to the almost omnipresent pieces of painted pottery, of
two distinct kinds, and to the very numerous chips of obsidian,
jet-black on the face, but transparent as smoky glass; of black lava;
and to the flint, jasper, and moss-agates, broken mechanically by man,
and scattered over the premises. These premises have been thoroughly
ransacked by visitors, and every striking object has already been
carried off. I had heard mentioned, among such samples, flint, agate,
and obsidian arrow-heads, stone hatchets and hammers, and copper (not
brass or iron) rings used for ornamental purposes,[113] but my luck it
was not to find any. Therefore the harvest is perhaps slim in that
respect. It is beyond all doubt that judicious digging among the lower
stories of the structures will reveal treasures,--not money, as the tale
current among the inhabitants has it, but things of archaeological and
ethnological value. For such an undertaking I was, as the Institute well
knows, not prepared. I attempted to dig, indeed, though quite alone, but
soon came to the conclusion that the time consumed in excavating one
metre of decayed and crumbling stones and earth would be more
satisfactorily employed in other directions; paving the way for the
exhaustive labors of better situated archaeologists.

I have been very lengthy in my _expose_ of facts and data regarding this
particular house _B_, for the simple reason that, as far as the
principles of architecture, based