Ds BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 56 
Speaking of the region south of Santa Fe, Morrison * says: 
Black, cinnamon, and occasionally grizzly bear, black and white-tailed deer, and 
turkeys, furnish abundant game to the Indian. The elk, once very plentiful in these 
mountains, is now very rarely seen. 
Other statements of like nature may be found. It is certain that 
since the advent of the white man with his death-dealing rifle large 
game animals have greatly decreased in numbers nearly everywhere. 
Any reduction in the abundance of game in the area under discussion 
is probably due to promiscuous hunting at all seasons by both whites 
and Indians supplied with rifles, rather than to the communal hunts 
of the Pueblo Indians or to the raids of roving Apache. Careful 
consideration of all the facts bearing on the question leads to the 
conclusion that game never was very abundant about the Rito de los 
Frijoles. However this may be, it seems certain that it could not 
have remained abundant when the vicinity was occupied by the 
ancient inhabitants and still have furnished them with a large part 
of their food supply. 
In his excellent paper on Pueblo environment, Hough ? says: 
It is difficult to realize the immense modification of animal and vegetable life which 
the white man has wrought in this region during the 30 yearsof his active occupancy. 
At the beginning of this period the region was well grassed and supplied with other 
vegetation adequate to the needs of vast herds of antelope, elk, and deer; rodent ani- 
mals and birds were plentiful, and carnivores had abundance of prey. As a result of 
vegetation a humus had formed on all protected situations, rainfall was absorbed and 
equalized in distribution, and the terrific denudation which gashes the land at pres- 
ent was not begun. 
The country was adapted to grazing and especially favorable on account of tempera- 
ture and latitude, and at once great herds of cattle, horses and sheep were introduced. 
from Texas where the range had failed. The result was that the range became over- 
stocked, the grass disappeared under the tongues and hoofs of myriads of domestic 
animals, shrubs and trees were browsed and destroyed or swept away by fires, from 
certain regions species of plants vanished, and the land lay bare to the augmented 
winds and torrential rains. Trails became profound arroyos and the humus van- 
ished in the streams and the surface of the country was stone, sand and gravel. Not 
the least of this baneful influence was the drying up of springs and other sources of 
water, and more than one observer collected data going to prove the progressive desicca- 
tion of the pueblo region. These facts must be borne in mind in discussion of the 
environment of the Southwest. Asan example, it may be stated that in the explora- 
tion of one ancient pueblo at Winslow, Arizona, the bones of 37 species of animals 
were taken from the house refuse; it is not probable at present that a naturalist could 
collect 5 of these species from the environment. Wherever the explorer’s spade has 
been put in the ancient ruins, facts of this character come to his notice, even if he 
has not heard the story from the early settlers or Indian traditionists. 
While the baneful influence of overstocking the range and other 
follies of white settlers in parts of the West and the Southwest 
1Executive and Descriptive Report of Lieutenant Charles C. Morrison, Sixth Cavalry, on the Opera- 
tions of Party No. 2, Colorado Section, Field Season of 1877, in Ann. Rep. U.S. Geog. Expl.and Surv. 
W. 100th Merid., for 1878, p. 137, 1878. 
2 Hough, Walter, Pueblo Environment, Proc. Amer. Asso. Adv. Sci., 55th meeting, 1906, pp. 450-51. 
