306 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1901. 



local storms in the basin is distributed for long distances; not infre- 

 quently the wash "runs through." Because of the water and of the 

 fact that the bed of the wash offers numerous places where the water 

 overflows wide areas of sand, forming ideal locations for Indian corn- 

 fields, the movements of migrating clans have been along Le Roux 

 and Cottonwood washes rather than along the Puerco and Upper Little 

 Colorado with their swift current. The prevalence of ruins along the 

 Le Roux Wash is in accordance with the conditions noted. The 

 better-known ruins are those at Ganado, Kintiel, and Tanner Springs, 

 and to these we may add the group under consideration. 



Along this migration route the gray and red ware in northern forms 

 of the San Juan have been carried south and west to the Little 

 Colorado far into Tusayan. It is probable also that the migrations 

 extended into the White Mountain plateau and are responsible for 

 some of the sites furnishing gray and red ware, as at McDonalds 

 Canyon. It must be said, however, that the characteristic San Juan 

 forms thin out in the western part of the White Mountain region, 

 while on the lower Le Roux they exist in entirety. 



SCORSE RANCH. 



The Scorse Ranch ruins lie on the south side of the Le Roux Wash, 

 in the broken country along the north flanks of the Holbrook mesa, 

 at a distance of from 16 to 20 miles north of Holbrook. (Plate 30.) 

 They extend from the "X" Ranch to the Scorse Ranch, a distance of 

 about 1 miles. Small sites are also found at the level of the valley, 

 but it will be seen that the larger pueblos were hidden in the hills, 

 where there is building material at hand. Small house ruins are found 

 near the base of the X Ranch Butte. This strangely formed mass of 

 black lava has nests of predatory birds on its summit, and the house 

 sites may have some connection with eagle ownership or they may 

 have been field houses. The bed of Le Roux Wash always contains 

 water, which may be had by digging a few feet below the surface. 

 Wood is scarce; a few cottonwoods growing along the wash and a 

 small clump of junipers on the mesa form the only trees to be seen. 

 Desert vegetation, such as "rabbit brush," Bigelovia, graveolens, Atri- 

 plex a/rgentea, etc., is relatively abundant and furnishes fuel to those 

 who camp there. Clay is plentiful, and stone exists near the top of 

 the mesa, where deposits of Triassic fossils and petrified wood were 

 seen, one pueblo having been built of the last-mentioned material. 



The ruins are rectangular, displaying no characteristics of plan 

 worthy of remark. No walls stand above the surface, and the condi- 

 tion of the sites gives one the impression that the pueblos have been 

 abandoned a long time. In general the pueblos face the valley without 

 uniformity as to orientation, nor do the cemeteries appeal' to have 



