hough] ANTIQUITIES OF GILA-SALT VALLEYS 29 



the material for construction that suggests itself to the Indian, 

 leads to the use of adobe as a practical necessity. 



Near the hot springs of the Gila are well-preserved cliff-dwellings 

 which are of considerable interest. The cliff-houses on Diamond 

 creek, discovered by Mr. H. W. Henshaw in 1877, are among the 

 first ruins of this character described in the Southwest. The upper 

 reaches of the Gila lie close to the head of the Mimbres, on which 

 river some of the peoples were evidently related to those who built 

 the great pueblos at Casas Grandes, as was shown by Bandelier in the 

 account of his reconnoissance of 1883-4." 



There has been no systematic effort to locate the ruins on the upper 

 Gila and the country southward to the Mexican border. While it 

 is probable that no large or important ruins are situated at any con- 

 siderable distance from the river, the region is interesting, through 

 the relations of its tribes to the former sedentary tribes of northern 

 Mexico. 



One of the most remarkable constructions in the Southwest is a 

 prehistoric dam in Animas valley, southern Grant county, X. Mex. 

 It consists of a gigantic earthwork 5 A- miles long and 22 to 21 feet high, 

 involving in its building the handling of from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 

 cubic yards of material. The purpose of this earthwork, which is 

 undoubtedly of artificial character, was to impound water for irri- 

 gation, and the work is comparable to that found in the irrigation 

 systems of the ancient inhabitants of the Gila and Salado valleys. 

 Arizona. The dam was discovered by the engineers on the survey 

 of the international boundary line, United States and Mexico, and 

 has been described, profiles and sections, by Capt, D. D. Gaillard, 

 U. S. Army. 6 



1. SOURCES OF THE GILA 



No. J. Cliff -dwellings — In the rim of a mesa 4 miles north of 

 Datil, Socorro county, N. Mex., there are 5 or 6 contiguous rooms 

 forming a cliff-house, but only one of them is intact. The pottery 

 from this locality is dull gray and brown in color and of crude manu- 

 facture, resembling that from near Magdalena, N. Mex., and stations 

 on the Rio Grande. The size, location, and plan of this ruin relate 

 it to many similar ruins in the mountains of southern New Mexico 

 and Arizona. Few ruins exist in the neighborhood of Datil or ap- 

 parently are to be found on the streams of this portion of the Datil 

 range, which borders the dreary San Agustin plains. 



Professor De Lashmutt, of Tucson, reports a quarry of obsidian 

 located on the headwaters of the Gila near the San Agustin plains. 



a Final Report, pt. n, Papers of Archaeological Institute of America, Am. Series, iv. 

 "American Anthropologist, ix, 311-313, September, 1896. 

 c The location of each ruin is shown on map, plate xi. 



