[Illustration: FIG. 11.—Ground plan of ruin A, Hill Canyon, Utah.]
The two large buildings near Taylor’s lower ranch, ruins A and B, are
typical of the first group, the most conspicuous of which, ruin A,
is shown in the accompanying figures (pl. 7, _b_, pl. 8, _a_). This
ruin stands on the point of a high cliff, inaccessible except on the
west side. Although the special features of the masonry are somewhat
obscured by fallen sections, and the form (fig. 5) is hidden, it is a
circular enclosure about 25 feet in diameter, its wall being about 13
feet high, at the highest point. Between this high outer wall (fig.
11) and that of the inner circle, there are remains of a banquette or
bench, surrounding the chamber very much broken down. The lower stones
are much larger than the upper, similar in this respect to the walls
of certain cliff dwellings. The circular room and bench once covered
the point of the mesa, and is separated from the plateau by a deep
fissure worn in the rock outside the wall on that side. The height of
the highest wall is 20 feet, and the bench around the circular portion
averages 3 feet high. In thickness the walls vary from 1 to 3 feet.
On the second ledge, or outcrop of hard rock below the summit of the
cliff, on which ruin A stands, there is a fine example of the dug-out
type of habitation, several of which occur in the sides of this canyon.
The roof of this type of dug-out is formed by a flat slab of rock
projecting horizontally from the cliff and forming the protection for
a chamber excavated in the soft rock below. In some instances these
dugouts have rudely constructed lateral and front walls but none of
them has more than one room. They appear to have been inhabited rooms
but may at times have served for shelter.[18]