76 THE CLIMATIC FACTOR AS ILLUSTRATED IN ARID AMERICA. 



States. Surrounded by these three tribes the Navajos live in the country near Chaco 

 Canyon, not dwelHng in viUages because the country is too dry to permit agriculture, 

 nor yet plundering after the manner of their fathers because of the restraining hand of the 

 white man, but caring for sheep and Uving a life almost identical with that of the nomads 

 in Persia or similar parts of Asia. 



Chaco Canyon may be reached either by wagon from Gallup on the Santa Fe Railroad 

 or l)y a shorter horseback ride of 55 miles straight north from the station of Thoreau. On 

 the way from Thoreau one passes through five distinct groups of ruins, including those 

 at the destination. How great the actual number of ruins may be I can not say, for I 

 could not procure a guide and was obliged to ride alone, turning aside only where I had been 

 especially informed of the existence of something worth seeing. Nevertheless I saw liter- 

 ally scores of one size or another. Of modern places of habitation, on the contrary, I did 

 not see over twenty, although I went by one road and returned by another. One of the 

 places of habitation was a newly established Indian agency; three were the homes of white 

 men whose sole business is trading with the Indians; two were the ranches of white men 

 who trade with the Indians and also raise sheep in one case and cattle in the other; the 

 rest were the temporary tents of nomadic Navajos, who camp here and there with their 

 sheep. 



Let us turn now to a description of the ruins seen on the ride from Thoreau to Chaco 

 Canyon. Thoreau, with its saloon, hotel, store, and one or two dwelling-houses, is a 

 typical little raihoad station in the lofty plateau region of northwestern New Mexico and 

 northern Arizona. Lying at an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet, and exposed to the unclouded 

 rays of the sun at all times of the year, it is warm by day even in winter, and cool by night 

 even in midsummer. The wooded Zuni Mountains rise a few miles to the south, and sup- 

 port a lumber industry which is the chief excuse for Thoreau's existence. On the other 

 side, northward, the plain is bordered by a line of magnificent red cliffs which rise 1,000 

 feet more or less, and run for miles parallel to the railroad. Riding eastward at the foot 

 of these one traverses a barren plain without vestige of modern habitation. No water is 

 to be found here for many miles except along the railroad where wells have been dug. 

 Even there it is so brackish that the few people who live at each station prefer to buy 

 water brought by train rather than to drink that of the wells. If it were not for the railroad 

 no one would live in the country except a few nomadic Navajos, wandering hither and 

 thither with their sheep, according to where scanty grass or a little water are to be found. 

 In spite of its proximity to the railroad, this is one of the most sparsely inhabited regions 

 in the whole United States. Yet as soon as one approaches the base of the great red cliffs 

 pottery begins to appear strewn thickly in small patches among low mounds which are 

 evidently the much weathered and battered remnants of small communal houses scattered 

 here and there at intervals of a few hundred yards. How many such mounds there may 

 be I can not tell, for after riding among them for a mile and a half I turned northward up 

 Chaves Canyon into the heart of the red mountains. The ruins are located close to the 

 mouth of small mountain valleys where the floods from summer storms spread out, and 

 where the soil is of the sandy type best adapted to cultivation in so dry a region. Agri- 

 culture would readily be possible, provided only there were an assurance of flood-water 

 sufficient to support the crops every year instead of only in good years. 



The next 4 miles of the road lead up the narrow valley of Chaves Canyon where there 

 is no room for agriculture. Then the trail comes out upon an upland stretch 8 or 9 miles 

 wide between the divide at the head of Chaves Canyon (7,150 feet above the sea) and the 

 main continental divide (100 feet higher) at the head of Satan's Canyon. Most of the 

 drainage here runs centripetally toward the shallow, temporary sheet of water known as 

 Smith's Lake, at an altitude of about 6,900 feet. IVIuch of the land is rocky, especially 

 near the divides, and the rest is less sandy and thus less propitious than in the region at 



