Men at work clearing^the rooms surrounding a kiva in a historic building at Pueblo 

 SanCristobal. 



been done, the number would still have fallen far short of seventy, the total 

 given by Coronado as inhabited in 1540. Doubtless Coronado's list 

 included some of the villages located on the tributary streams such as 

 Galisteo Creek, but there is still a margin to be accounted for and one is 

 forced to believe that during the intervening centuries many village sites 

 have been washed away or by some process obliterated. Such obliteration 

 may explain also the apparent absence of village ruins at the southern end, 

 that is, in the great Mesilla section of the valley, although we have here no 

 less than 180,000 acres of bottom land suitable for cultivation. 



As for the presence of immense ruins distant from the rich bottom lands, 

 the fact is not easily explained. It may be stated however that, contrary 

 to the prevailing notion about the great heat and dryness of New Mexican 

 climate, dry farming is possible in the region say from Gran Quivira north- 

 ward. Besides it is conceivable that these distant villagers did cultivate 

 lands on the river bottom. 



Human skeleton, apparently that of a woman who had been left lying in the corner of 

 the room in the position in which she died 



71 



