CLIMATE OF NORTH .AMERICA HUNTINGTON. 391 



yield from this land has fallen off as much as 85 per cent in recent 

 dry years, and must fall off more in the frequent seasons which are 

 worse than the one in question. Winter crops such as have just 

 been mentioned, however, had no importance for the Hohokam, since 

 they had no wheat, barley, oats, or other grains of the Old World, but 

 depended almost solelj^ upon maize and beans, which require summer 

 ram. According to Ruelas, the Mexican, no flood waters reached 

 Charco Yuma in 1885, when the summer rainfall amounted to only 

 3.07 inches, the minimum on record, nor in 1886 when it amounted to 

 4.27 inches. If no water reached the place with a rainfall of 4.27 

 inches we may safely infer that at least 5 inches would be required in 

 order to raise any crop whatever. During the 45 years for which rec- 

 ords are available, 15 summers, or one- third, have had a rainfall of 

 less than 5 inches. We seem compelled to conclude that at present 

 the total amount of land which could be cultivated under the Hoho- 

 kam methods amounts to only 300 acres, wMch would yield no appre- 

 ciable crop at least one year out of tlu-ee, and poor crops about half 

 of the rest of the time. 



In si)ite of these untoward circumstances the Hohokam lived here 

 in considerable numbers. On the left bank of the dry river bed, 

 between the channel and the base of the jutting point of the Tucson 

 Mountams, jMr. Herbert Brown, editor of the Tucson Star, showed us 

 the remains of a large village. For nearly 2 miles we found pottery 

 and other artifacts scattered along the base of the mountains, not 

 thick as a rule, but at frequent intervals as if houses had been located 

 here and there along the edge of the cultivated land just as we have 

 seen to be the case farther upstream, or as the modern houses of the 

 Papago Indians are located at San Xavier. In the center of the vil- 

 lage the pottery is thicker. There we found a great bowlder of ande- 

 sitic lava almost buried m alluvium. It was studded with 24 round 

 holes about 10 inches deep and 3 or 4 in diameter, while a similar 

 block not far away contained 7 holes of the same sort. Long ago the 

 Hohokam women must have gathered here with their stone pestles, 

 and gossiped as they sat on the great rocks and pounded corn, beans, 

 or other seeds to make Hour for the daily bread of their husbands and 

 sons. Not far away an elliptical inclosure of the kind which we have 

 supposed to be a temple or place for religious ceremonials has a length 

 of 210 feet and a width of 90, dimensions sufficient to indicate a village 

 of considerable size. Back of the tem})le and the great grinding stone, 

 if these are the proper terms, the whole eastern and northern face of the 

 steep rocky hills is covered with low defensive walls, inclosing spaces 

 10 to 30 feet wide, where families appear to have taken refuge in 

 times of danger. A rough estmiate shows that these hiclosures num- 

 ber several hundred, which gives some idea of the probable size of 

 the village. In addition to the ruins already described there was still 



