is 24 m. x 46
m.--78 ft. x 150 ft.

The divisions are not strictly marked, and I forbear giving any lengths,
since there is great uncertainty about them.

The foundation walls, where visible, are generally about 0.60 m. to 0.75
m.--23 in. to 30 in.--wide, and composed of three rows of stones, set
lengthwise, selected for size, and probably broken to fit.[95]

[Illustration: PLATE I
GENERAL PLAN OF RUINS OF PECOS.]

Looking northward from the church, a wall of broken stones, similar to
the one we already noticed at the south, meets the eye. The _mesilla_
itself terminates east and west in rocky ledges of inconsiderable
height, and the wall stretches across its entire width of 39 m.--129 ft.
Its distance from the church is 10 m.--33 ft.; and it thus forms, with
the northern church wall, a trapezium of 10 m.--33 ft. This enclosure is
said to have been the church-yard.[96] Beyond it the mesilla and its
ruined structures appear in full view; and from the church to the
northern end, which is also its highest point, it has exactly the form
of an elongated pear or parsnip. Hence the name given to it by Spanish
authors of the eighteenth century, "el Navon de los Pecos."[97] This
fruit-like shape is not limited to the outline: it also extends to the
profile. Starting from the church, there is a curved neck, convex to the
east, and retreating in a semicircle from the stream on the west. At the
end of this neck, about 200 m.--660 ft.--north of the church, there is a
slight depression, terminating in a dry stream-bed emptying into the
bottom of the Arroyo de Pecos south-westward; and beyond this depression
the rocks bulge up to an oblong mound, nearly 280 m.--920 ft.--long from
north to south, and at its greatest width 160 m.--520 ft.--from east to
west. At the northern termination of this mound the _mesilla_ curves to
the north-east, and finally terminates in a long ledge of tumbled rocks,
high and abrupt, which gradually merges into the ridges of sandy soil
towards the little town of Pecos.[98] Pl. I., Fig. 5, gives a tolerably
fair view of the _mesilla_. Pl. I., Fig. 1, is designed to exhibit its
appearance as seen from below, the highest elevation above the stream
being nearly 30 m.--95 ft.

The rock of the _mesilla_ is a compact, brownish-gray limestone. It is
crystalline, but yet fossiliferous, very hard, and not deteriorating
much on exposure. Its strata dip perceptibly to the south-west;
consequently the western rim is