464 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



The best description of this reservoir is the following, quoted 

 from Baron Nordenskiold's " Cliff dwellers of the Mesa Verde " 

 (p. 74) : 



A structure of considerable size, wliicli was probably utilized for purposes of 

 irrigation, lies on Chapin Mesa, some kilometers above tbe great ruins and 

 not very far from the slope into Montezuma Valley. A large depression 30 

 meters in diameter is surrounded by a low, circular wall 4.5 meters thick. 

 Water was probably conducted to this reservoir from some neighboring gulch. 

 Traces of a ditch which formed the connection have been observed north of 

 the reservoir by Richard Wetherill. A view of the reservoir is given in fig- 

 ure 43, which, however, shows only a part of a low, ring-shaped mound over- 

 grown with bushes, all that is left of the thick wall. Quite near the reser- 

 voir we find the ruins of a considerable village, but the walls are now leveled 

 with the ground, leaving only huge heaps of stone to mark the site. 



Mummy Lake, or Moki Lake (pi. 7, fig. 1) , is an artificial depression 

 surrounded by an oval or circular ridge of earth, in places outlined 

 by double walls of stones suggesting rooms. Excavations at the base 

 of these stones, however, show that their foundations do not extend 

 far below the surface; but work thus far has not been sufficient 

 to prove conclusively that there were not rooms on the periphery. 

 Mummy Lake lies on the northern edge of a group of mounds 

 where the slope of the surface of the plateau would seem to indi- 

 cate that water could be readily drawn from it. It is probable 

 that the farms of the ancients were situated between the pueblos 

 of the Mummy Lake group, and that these farms were irrigated 

 by water drawn from this reservoir by means of irrigating ditches. 

 In the time that has elapsed since the Mummy Lake pueblos 

 were deserted the reservoir, like the ditches, has been filled with 

 wind-blown sand or soil, so that its depth has greatly diminished, 

 and at present water remains in it only a short time. Probably in 

 prehistoric days it contained a perpetual water supply of a purer 

 quality than now, when it is fouled by cattle excrement and made 

 impure by mud washed into it from the surrounding banks; and 

 if such were the case the reservoir probably supplied the neighbor- 

 ing pueblos -^ith drinking water, since springs in this neighborhood 

 are remote and very difficult of access. For instance, at the bottom 

 of Soda Canyon there is an unpalatable soda spring, a climb from 

 which to the pueblo is very arduous. Another spring, at the head 

 of the same canyon, now used for 'watering stock, is over a mile 

 distant, while a third possible source of palatable water is near the 

 head of Navaho Canyon, even farther away. There was a small 

 reservoir, possibly communicating with the larger by canals, now 

 clogged with sand at each mound in the group. One of these minor 

 reservoirs is indicated on the map near the mound excavated. 



A much worn trail extended from Mummy Lake to Spruce-tree 

 House, just east of the house excavated, and between it and the 



