E. T. Elliott

“ From the evidences of the rocks and the deposits of the mountain valleys it is fair to deduce the conclusion that, as in time the waters gradually receded, the first part of America to assume any dimensions was the backbone of the continent, or that elevated portion known as the Rocky Mountains, which had probably never at this period been entirely covered with water, thus affording a long, continuous stretch of dry ground on which man and beast could live and wander as they listed. ”

“ We found no more dwellings as large as the workshop, the majority of them being very small, the rough traces of walls nearly always visible, but the caves so circumscribed in extent it seemed impossible that human beings could have lived in them. ”

“ It is easy to follow these people from their traces as they improved in knowledge with time. They passed southward, apparently following the warm climate, stopping for ages at a time in some now sterile valley, which when occupied by them must have been rich and fertile; their gradually improving architecture extending down the La Plata, Mancos, San Juan, and Colorado Rivers, through Arizona, and, as I before said, culminating in the comparatively modern buildings of the highly intelligent Aztecs. ”