190 ABORIGINAL REMAINS IN VERDE VALLEY. 1eth.ank.13 



not SO closely as the western, Dy a chain of mountains known as the 

 Mazatzal range. The crest of this chain is generally over 10 miles 

 from the river, and the intervening stretch, unlike the other side, which 

 comes down to the river in practically a single slope, is broken into 

 long promontories and foothills, and sometimes, where the larger tribu- 

 taries come in, into well-defined terraces. Except at its head the ijriu- 

 cipal tributaries of the Verde come from the east, those on the west, 

 which are almost as numerous, being generally small and insignificant. 



Most of the modern Settlements of the Eio Verde are along the 

 upper portion of its course. Prescott is situated on Granite creek, one 

 of the sources of the river, and along other tributaries, as far down as 

 the southern end of the great valley in whose center Verde is located, 

 there are many scattered settlements ; but from that point to McDowell 

 there are hardly a dozen houses all told. This region is most rugged 

 and forbidding. There are no roads and few trails, and the latter are 

 feebly marked and little used. The few i)ermanent inhabitants of the 

 region are mostly "cow men," and the settlements, except at one iioint, 

 are shanties known as "cow camps." Therie are hundreds of square 

 miles of territory here which are never visited by white men. except by 

 "cow-boys" during the spring and autumn round-ups. 



Scattered at irregular intervals along both sides of the river are 

 many benches and terraces of alluvium, varying in width from a few 

 feet to several miles, and comprising all the cultivable land in the val- 

 ley of the river. Since the Verde is a mountain stream with a great 

 fall, its power of erosion is very great, and its channel changes fre- 

 quently; in some places several times in a single winter season. 

 Benches and terraces are often formed or cut away within a few days, 

 and no portion of the river banks is free from these changes until con- 

 tinued erosion has lowered the bed to such a degree that that portion 

 is beyond the reach of high water. When this occurs the bench or 

 terrace, being formed of rich alluvium, soon becomes covered with 

 grass, and later with mesquite and "cat-claw" bushes, interspersed 

 with such Cottonwood trees as may have survived the period when the 

 terrace was but little above the river level. Cotton woods, with an 

 occasional willow, form the arborescent growth of the valley of the 

 Verde proper, although on some of the principal tributaries and at a 

 little distance from the river gi-oves of other kinds of trees are found. 

 All these trees, however, are confined to the immediate vicinity of the 

 river and those of its tributaries which carry water during most of the 

 year; and as the mountains which hem in the valley on the east and 

 west are not high enough to support great pines such as characterize 

 the plateau country on the north and east, the asi)ect of the country, 

 even a short distance away from the river bottom, is arid and for- 

 bidding in the extreme. 



Within the last few years the charactei' of the river and of the coun- 

 try adjacent to it has materially changed, and inferences drawn from 



