2 BUREAU *0^ AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 56 



Speaking of the region south of Santa Fe, Morrison 1 says: 



JHack, cinnamon, and occasionally grizzly bear, black and white-tailed deer, and 

 tilfeeys, 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 2 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 years of 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. As an 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 



1 Executive 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. Set., 55th meeting, 1906, pp. 450-51. 



