Ancient Buildings On The Gila River

A careful examination of aome extensive ruins, found some miles east of Florence, on the Gila river, has been made. Liout. Ward was the first explorer who camo upori the desolate rpmains of a once imposing architectnral pile. It has been deserted perhaps for more than a thouaand years, and has been crumbling away in the wilderness. The principal ruin is a parallelogram í'ortification, six hundred feet in width by sixteen hundred feet in length. The walls, which were built oi stone, have long been overthrown and are overgrown by trees and vines. In muny places a mere ridge indicates the line ot the wall, the stones having disappeared beneath the surfaco. Within the onclosod area are the remains of a great structure 200 by 260 feet, couatructed of roughlv bewn stones. In some places the walls remain almost perfect to a heie;ht of some twelve feet above the surface. On the east side of the granda casa there are two openings of an oval shapo which doubtless served the purpose of windows. Ou the inner sides of the wall of the palaee, for such it doubtles8 was, there are yet perfectly distinct tracings of the image of the sun. There are two towers, at the southeast and southwest corners of the great enclosure, still standing, one of which is twenty-six and the other thirtyone foet high. Theso have evidently been much higher, as the broken tops and the amount of debris near their base indícate. A few copper_ iraplements, some small golden ornaments - oiie being an image of the sun, with a perforation in the middle - some stone utensils, and two rudely curvea stone vasos, much liko those found in Zupetaroand Cupan, in Central America, are all the works of art yot discovered. No excavations have been made as yet to dotermine fully the extent and eharacter oí these ruina. The ruins are situated in a small plain, elevated nearly two hundred feet above the bed of the Gila. Just west of the walls of the fortifications there is a beautiful stream of water having its source in the mountains, which crosses the plain, and by a series of cataracts falla into the Gila about two miles below. The fragmenta of pottery and polished stone reveal a condition of civilization among the builders of these ruins analogous to that of the .ancient Peruvians, Central American, and Mexican nations. The country in the vioinity of this buried palaoe is particularly wild and unusually desolate. No clue to the builders of this great fortified palace, with its towers and moat, -has been, or is likely ever to be discovered. There is one thing, aowever, made apparent, that is the whole country was once peopled by a race having a higher grade of civilization ïhan is found among any of the native jribes of the later ages, "