THE EUINS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 59 



existed. Without them the only means of sustenance in all the region from Rillito down- 

 ward is the hunting of jack-rabbits or the keeping of cattle watered from deep wells. In 

 one or two places a few acres can at times be cultivated when the floods come down strongly, 

 but any reliance upon agriculture is out of the question. At best the population is limited 

 to a few cattle ranches miles apart. Yet in the past it was dotted with numerous agri- 

 cultural villages. 



Before leaving the Santa Cruz drainage area we must describe two more sites located 

 close to the mountains and affording phenomena different from anything yet discussed. 

 The first is at Gibbon's Ranch, a mile or two east of Sabino Canyon, at the southern 

 base of the Santa Catalina Mountains. The peculiarity of this site is that it is one of the 

 few where the water-supply depends upon a spring rather than a stream. At present the 

 site is unoccupied. A decaying adobe house stands beside a small reservoir supplied by 

 two or three trickling little springs. The total amount of water at the time of our visit 

 in March 1910 would scarcely suffice to irrigate 3 or 4 acres. Just what its capacity is 

 can not be stated, but at any rate the owner of the ranch did not find it worth while to 

 practise agriculture, and turned his attention entirely to cattle raising. Since his death or 

 removal, no one has lived there. Some day, perhaps, some thrifty Chinese peasants will 

 establish here a little market garden. They will certainly be most skilful if they can make 

 the water suffice for the support of much more than two or three families. East of the 

 spring a dry wash occasionally carries floods from the mountains. Close beyond it lies 

 the site of an old village of the same type as the one at Sabino Canyon. Mr. Bovee and I 

 counted the foundations of 28 houses in an area of 8 acres. The entire village, that is, the 

 district strewn with pottery, amounts to almost 40 acres. Apparently the trickling springs, 

 which are not now deemed worth using, once supported more than a hundred people. 



At Gibbon's Ranch, as in other ruins, a structure which appears to have been a temple 

 lies in the heart of the village. Although in an extreme state of ruin, it appears to have 

 been elhptical in shape. The main northern wall, which is the best preserved, is about 

 105 feet long and is oriented east and west magnetic or N. 78° W. This brings up an 

 interesting fact : In all the villages where stone foundations occur there seems to be a more 

 or less definite scheme of orientation, which is closely adhered to in the temples and larger 

 buildings, and is less and less closely observed as the structures decrease in size or are 

 located at a greater distance from the temple. I measured the orientation of 55 foundations 

 in 7 different villages located in four widely separated localities. They were distributed 

 as follows: 



Group I. Sabino, 37 measurements; Bear Canyon, 3; Gibbon's Ranch, 3. 



Group II. Rincon Valley near Sentinel Butte, 2; 1.5 miles from Sentinel Butte, 8. 



Group III. Empire Ranch, 1. 



Group IV. The Great Trinehera of the Magdalena Valley in Sonera, 1. 



Out of the 55 structures, only 8, 5 of which are in the main village in the Rincon Valley, 

 diverge more than 10° from east and west magnetic. Even including these the average 

 direction of all the walls is within a third of a degree of east and west, or north and south, 

 according to the present direction of the compass, which here points about 12° east of 

 north. The explanation of this orientation possibly lies in some astronomical phenom- 

 enon. The ancient Aztecs observed one of the chief feasts of the year early in May at 

 about the time when the summer rains begin in the City of Mexico. Possibly the Hohokam 

 observed a similar festival At any rate, early in May and again about the first of August 

 the sun sets approximately in the direction of the main walls of the temples and houses of 

 the Hohokam. 



The study of the ruins of the main Santa Cruz Valley and some of its tributaries led 

 to the conclusion that a mere examination of the map was sufficient to indicate where 



