48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLrOGY [bull. 54 



Concerning Arizona, WarcP says: 



There is evidence throughout that entire region that the amount of precipitation was 

 formerly much greater than at present, and in so speaking I do not refer to a very- 

 remote date geologically, but to a period which was probably post-Tertiary. Indeed, 

 from the present condition of many of the regions in which we know that the early 

 Indians dwelt and which are now perfectly dry, with all sources of water so remote 

 that they can no longer be inhabited, it must be inferred that there has been a change 

 of climate within the period of human occupancy. 



Speaking of the Jemez plateau, Hewett" says: 



It appears that the abandonment of the cliff and pueblo villages of the plateau 

 occirrred from six hundred to eight hundred years ago as a result of climatic modifica- 

 tions by reason of which the hardships of living at these sites became unendurable. 

 The transition from plateau to valley life was not necessarily sudden. There is no 

 evidence of any great simultaneous movement from all parts of the plateau. The 

 change was probably accomplished within a generation or two, one village after 

 another removing to the valley or to more distant places, as the desiccation of the 

 plateau proceeded. There is at present not a single stream on the east side of the 

 Jemez plateau between the Chama and the Jemez that carries its water to the Rio 

 Grande throughout the year. Theancient Tewa people were, as are their modern suc- 

 cessors, agriculturists; hence, their living was dependent on the water supply. Only 

 the most primitive style of irrigation was practiced and there is every evidence that 

 the region was never rich in game or natural food products of any kind. 



Of this region Loew ^ says: 



Another fact observed here is worthy of mention on account of its bearing on the 

 dryness of these regions, viz., the existence of deserted ant-hills here and there upon 

 the isolated sandstone mesas of small extent. Here the ants construct their hills from 

 much larger pebbles than do those in the Eastern States, the sweeping winds of this 

 section easily blowing the small particles away and rendering fii-m structiu-es neces- 

 sary. Neither living nor dead ants were to be found, but legs and wings of insects 

 that had served the ants for food were seen. Had the ant^ died in these hills, surely 

 some of their horny tissues would have been left, as of the beetles. There is no doubt 

 in my own mind that the ants had gone to the deeper valleys and caiions where some 

 grass and consequently insects existed; the grass having died out on these mesas, bugs 

 and beetles had taken their departure. This would seem to indicate increasing 

 dryness of the climate of New Mexico, the inhabitants of which are convinced that it 

 becomes drier and drier every year. ' ' El tiempo se pone mas seco cada ano, ' ' (the weather 

 grows drier every year,) sighs the Mexican. They tell of springs and creeks that ex- 

 isted one hundred and some fifty years ago; indeed, even of some that have disappeared 

 within the last fifteen J'-ears. Among these, a Mexican of Abiquiu mentioned the Rito 

 ('oyote, Rito Vallecito, and Rito Colorado de Abiquiu, all once existing in the moun- 

 tains near Abiquiu. The provinces of Tiguex and Quivira, (the former on the Rio 

 Puerco [sic], the latter east of the Manzana Mountains,) described by the early Spanish 

 visitors as fertile countries, are now barren. Ruins of former Indian towns are found 

 twelve to eighteen miles away from any water, one discovered by Lieutenant WTiipple 

 being fifteen miles north of the Rio Mancos. There must certainly have been water 

 in this section formerly, [p. 133.] 



1 Ward, Lester F., Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United States, in Monogr. U. S. Geo!. Surv., 

 XL\Tn,pl.i,p. 23, 1905. 



2 Hcwett, Edgar L., Antiquities of the Jemez Plateau, New Mexico, Bull. S2, Bur. Amer. Ethv., p. 13, 

 1906. 



3 Loew, Oscar, Keport upon the Agricultural Resources of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colo- 

 rado, with Analyses of Soils, Plants, etc., in Ann. Rep. U. S. Geog. Expl. and Surv. W. of 100th Meridian 

 for 1875, pp. 133, 135-36, 1875. 



