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MEMOIRS OP THE NA.TIONAL ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 



it Las been crossed by railroads. Explorations within its borders were attended wth many 

 physical difficnlties. The parties of topographical surveyors who entered the country had very 

 short seasons in which to work, and they had neither the time nor means, had they had the 

 inclination, to make the needed excavations. But besides physical hindrances there were others 

 equally potent. The importance of excavation to the proper understanding of the archaeology of 

 tills region was not appreciated ; surface finds were numerous and interesting, and it was thought 

 that excavation could yield nothing further. The majority of antiquarians in America were more 

 deeply interested, as they still are, in the exploration of the old world than in that of the new. 

 Money which was readily forthcoming for the one was withheld from the other by patrons of 

 science in America. 



The few explorers who were interested in work within our own borders found suflicient field 

 for their labors and speculations in the mounds and kitchen-middens of the Eastern States. It 

 was at length, through the unsatisfied curiosity of the ethnographer, not through the zeal of the 

 archaeologist, that the systematic exploration of the Western ruins was begun. 



The region in question abounds in finely stratified sandstone, which with little labor may be 

 prepared for building, and most of the ruins so far discovered are the remains of houses built of 

 such stones. These may be found in all stages of decay — in some cases the walls are still stand- 

 ing many stories high, as in the valley of tlie Chaco; in other cases the sites are marked only by 

 low heaps of lichen-covered stones, indistinguishable, save to the trained scientific eye, from 

 natural accumulations of rocky dehHs with which the country abounds. Some of these ruins were 



Fig. 2. The Casa Grande of the Gila. 



inhabited by Indians within the brief historic period of New Mexico and Arizona, which extends 

 over less than four centuries, but the vast majority are prehistoric. A number of the ruins are 

 those of houses whose walls were of clay {adobe and a variety oipise). Some of these in the valley 

 of the Rio Grande were built since the Spanish occupation of the country and many have been 

 erected under civilized guidance, but others, particularly those in the valley of- the Colorado, are 

 undoubtedly of prehistoric aiul aboriginal origin. As might be expected the earthen walls are in 

 many cases reduced to the common level of the ground and are to be traced only, as in the ruined 

 cities of the Salado, by digging beneath the surface of the earth; yet one of the best preserved 

 and most imposing of the prehistoric ruins within our borders, the Casa Grande of the Gila 

 (Fig. 2), is built of clay. This ruin was long supposed to be the remains of a stritcture without 

 counterpart within the boundaries of the United States; but, as will hereafter be shown, it is now 

 known to be but one of many such buildings which once towered over the wide flood-plaius of the 

 Gila and its tributaries. 



In studjaug the folklore and religious practices of the people of Zuiii during his residence of 

 about five years in their pueblo, Mr. Gushing found himself confronted by many perplexing ques- 

 tions for which no satisfactory explanation could then be found; but he was led to believe from 



