164 Minutes of meetings. 



entirely uninhabited, but it is capable of supporting a 

 population of several hundred thousand. What is remark- 

 able about this river is, that at one time its banks were 

 covered with a dense mass of inhabitants, who were a 

 nation of masons. The ruined houses are everywhere, 

 perched up among the rocks and on the fertile bottoms. 

 Wherever a piece of land was capable of cultivation by 

 irrigation, there was a dwelling of stone. Many of these 

 dwellings yet contained the cedar wood work, and were in 

 a good state of preservation, while others, more ancient, 

 were but a heap of ruins. Many of these building exhibit 

 skill in their construction. The stones were squared and 

 hewn, and the outside of the walls must have been rubbed 

 down smooth after building, and this would cost a great 

 deal of labor. The time of the desertion of the Valley of 

 the San Juan is traditional. One intelligent Indian said 

 that the people left to go to the succor of the armies of 

 Montezuma, but this is doubtful, and it might with more 

 reason be ascribed to the constant inroads of the warlike 

 and hostile neighboring tribes. 



All over that land there is evidence of decay. Much of 

 it is the result of the gradual drying up of the country. 

 The rains fall at the wrong time, and the waters that, in 

 the early parts of its history, probably thousands of years 

 ago, were distributed over the table lands, are now 

 confined to the canons, at the bottom of which there 

 is a narrow strip of verdure. These canons are great 

 chasms, hundreds of feet beneath the land level, through 

 which the rivers pour, and that drain the land excess- 

 ively. The country is spoiled through overdrainage, and 

 is left a waterless wilderness, on which no useful plant 

 can grow. 



The honey bee was lost sight of on the prairies, and does 

 not exist in New Mexico. The country, however, in many 

 places, is favorable to the production of honey. 



Prof. Kirtland exhibited the skull and bones of the head 



