hough] ANTIQUITIES OF GILA-SALT VALLEYS 18 



Salt was obtainable at several places, but especially and in good 

 quality at the sacred Salt lake southwest of Zuhi, which in former 

 times was visited by the inhabitants of a vast region. 



AS AFFECTED BY VEGETAL ENVIRONMENT 



Exhaustive collections made in caves and shelters with a view 

 of securing every substance entering into the life of this ancient 

 people strikingly illustrate the preponderant influence of the vege- 

 tal world. Few areas in the Southwest are more fully supplied with 

 vegetal material. Coniferous trees in the drier areas and deciduous 

 trees along the water courses furnished timber for building and fire- 

 wood, while smaller trees and shrubs yielded material for bows, 

 clubs, digging sticks, prayer sticks, and basketry. Bark was put to 

 a number of uses — for bedding, tying, fire preservation, cordage, 

 and costumes. Smaller vegetation likewise had numerous uses — 

 arrow shafts," ceremonial offerings, and flutes were made of reed ; mats 

 of tule ; baskets, sandals, and mats, of willow, grass, yucca, dasylirion, 

 and other plants. Textile fiber, food, narcotics, medicine, and dyes 

 were derived from wild plants; and cultivated plants, as corn, 

 beans, squashes, and gourds, formed the principal basis of subsistence. 

 Cotton was grown in the warmer localities, and, as in other parts 

 of the Pueblo region, was employed for clothing as well as for sacred 

 purposes. 



The debris in dry caves has preserved in a remarkable manner 

 materials which give us knowledge of the vegetal food supply of the 

 former inhabitants. There have been found in these localities corn, 

 beans, squash, and gourds, of the cultivated plants; walnuts, which 

 grow abundantly up to an elevation of 6,000 feet; pirion nuts, and 

 acorns; grass and various other seeds; fruits of the yucca (datil), 

 cactus, gooseberry, grape, squawberry, juniper, and hackberry; and 

 the agave, whose fleshy leaves furnish a sweet nutriment, and numer- 

 ous roots. In the warmer areas, which are sparser in vegetation, the 

 agave, cactus, acacia, and other desert plants were utilized. ' 



AS AFFECTED BY ANIMAL ENVIRONMENT 



The animal environment was important. Larger mammals were 

 represented in the region by the elk, deer, antelope, bear, and moun- 

 tain lion. Smaller mammals were abundant, and the turkey, grouse, 

 and other birds were numerous. Other orders of animal life also 

 were found here. Among the insects the most useful was the wild 

 honeybee. The skins, pelage and plumage, antlers, claws, hoofs, 

 horns, teeth, bones, sinews, and membranes all had value for various 



« The arrow reed is now almost extinct in this region. 



