CLIMATE OP NORTH AMERICA HUNTINGTON. .393 



most remote group the problem not only of raising crops, but of obtain- 

 ing drinking water, would apparently prevent primitive people from 

 living there under present conditions. Wells a hundred or more feet 

 deep, such as support the few far-scattered cattle ranches of modern 

 times, were of course out of the question. Reservoirs were doubtless 

 the common resoiu"ce, but they were apparently constructed merely 

 of earth without plaster, and at best they must have been shallow. 

 If for 10 consecutive months no Hoods came down the river to tliis 

 point, as happened in 1909-10, all the water must have disappeared 

 by seepage or evaporation, to say nothing of daily use, long before 

 the supply was replenished; while periods like 1884-1886, when there 

 were no floods for at least 30 months, would inevitably cause the com- 

 plete abandonment of such a village and probably the death of many 

 of its inhabitants, by reason, not only of hunger and famine, but also 

 of the wars and dissentions which would inevitably arise when all 

 the count! y was in the thi'oes of terrible drought. 



To sum up the conditions in the Santa Cruz Valley, it appears that 

 at present not more than fom' or five thousand people could find sus- 

 tenance without modern railroads and other means of outside assist- 

 ance. The part of the valley which is now capable of cultivation 

 contains ruins wliich indicate that all the available land was utihzed 

 m the past. Below the point where irrigation is now possible there 

 are tlu-ee large groups of ruins, and the three together must have 

 had as many people as the higher regions where there is still water. 

 In other words, it seems as if the Santa Cruz Valley once had at least 

 twice as many people as it could at present support, and half of these 

 lived where the white man can not now get a living from agriculture. 



Before leaving the Santa Cruz drainage area, we must describe two 

 sites located at the headwaters of tributaries and affording phenom- 

 ena different from those thus far discussed. The fu-st is at Gibbon's 

 ranch, east of Tucson, at the southern base of the Santa Catalina 

 Mountains. Tliis is one of the few places where the water supply 

 depends upon a spring rather than a stream. In 1910 we found the 

 site unoccupied, although a decaying adobe house stands beside a 

 small reservoir supplied by two or three trickling little springs. The 

 total amount of water in March, 1910, would scarcely have sufficed 

 to irrigate 3 or 4 acres, an amount so small that the owner of the 

 ranch did not find it worth while to practice agricultm-e at all, but 

 tm*ned his attention to cattle raising. Since his death or removal, 

 no one has lived there. Some day, perhaps, a thi'ifty Chinese peasant 

 will establish there a market garden. He will certainly be most 

 skillful if he can make the water suffice for the support of more than 

 two or three families. Yet once there was a respectable village here. 

 East of the dry "wash" or sandy flood channel wliich occasionally 

 carries water for an horn* or two while rahi is falling, my guide, Mr. 



