FEWKBS] RUINS ON THE UPPER VERDE RIVER 187 
The buildings herein considered have few points of likeness to New 
Mexican pueblos;' in details they are more nearly related to the ruins 
of habitations called jacales, on the Gila and its tributaries. The 
forts or fortified hilltops suggest the trincheras of Sonora and Chi- 
huahua, in northwestern Mexico, and present architectural features 
distinguishing this type from true pueblos of New Mexico, Colorado, 
northern Arizona, and Utah, the fort or fortified hilltop being a 
southern and western rather than a northern and eastern type of 
structure. 
Comparison of the ruins along the upper Verde with those on 
or near Walnut Creek shows clearly the influence of environment 
on human habitations. In the former region cliff-dwellings and 
cave habitations predominate, the latter because they could be 
easily excavated in the soft rock, whereas in the Walnut Creek 
basin the formations consist of granite and basalt. The con- 
struction of cliff-houses or cave-dwellings here being impossible, 
they are replaced by forts. Judging from the size and number of 
these forts, the conflicts between the inhabitants and the hostile 
tribes must have been severe. 
RUINS ON THE UPPER VERDE RIVER 
All evidence indicates that the upper part of the Verde Basin, 
like the middle and lower sections, had a considerable aboriginal 
population in prehistoric times. The valleys of the tributaries of 
the Verde also show evidences of former occupancy, almost every 
high hill being crowned by aruin. The walls of some of these struc- 
tures are still intact, but most of them are broken down, although not 
to so great an extent that the ground plan of the rooms can not 
be fairly well traced. Many river terraces, or elevated river banks, 
where agriculture was possible, are the sites of extensive ruins, as 
indicated by rows of foundation stones. 
The most important and typical ruins along the middle Verde 
are Montezuma Castle and the aboriginal shrine, Montezuma Well, 
which are so well known that the author has merely introduced 
illvstrations (pls. 79, 80) of them for comparative purposes. 
The present record of unpublished studies begins with the con- 
sideration of cave-dwellings at the mouth of Oak Creek, from an 
archeologic point of view one of the least known groups of cave- 
dwellings in the Verde Valley. 
1The author has repeatedly pointed out a distinction between the type of ruin called jacales, char- 
acteristic of southern and western Arizona, and that known to archeologists as “ pueblos,’’ so abundant in 
New Mexico. 
