88 THE CLIFF RUINS OF CANYON DE CHELLY [ETH. ANN. 16 
the narvest season it is the practice of the Navaho to abandon the 
canyon for the winter, driving their flocks and carrying the season’s 
produce to more open localities in the neighboring valleys. The canyon 
is not a desirable place of residence in the winter to a people who live 
in the saddle and have large flocks of sheep and goats, but there is no 
evidence that the old inhabitants followed the Navaho practice. 
During most of the year there is no water in the lower 10 miles of 
the canyons, where most of the cultivable land is situated. The 
autumn rains in the mountains, which occur late in July or early in 
August, sometimes send down a little stream, which, however, gen- 
erally lasts but a few days and fails to reach the mouth of the canyon. 
Late in October, or early in November, a small amount comes down 
and is fairly permanent through the winter and spring. The stream 
bed is even more tortuous than the canyon it occupies, often wash- 
ing the cliffs on one side, then passing directly across the bottom 
and returning again to the same side, the stream bed being many 
times wider than the stream, which constantly shifts its channel. 
In December it becomes very cold and so much of the stream is in 
shade during a large part of the day that much of the water becomes 
frozen and, as it were, held in place. In the warm parts of the day, and 
in the sunshine, the ice is melted, the stream resumes its flow, and so 
gradually pushes its way farther and farther down the canyon. But 
some sections, less exposed to warmth than others, retain their ice 
during the day. These points are flooded by the water from above, 
which is again frozen during the night and again flooded the next day, 
and soon. Inashort time great fields of smooth ice are formed, which 
render travel on horseback very difficult and even dangerous. This, 
and the secant grazing afforded by the bottom lands in winter, doubtless 
is the cause of the annual migration of the Navaho; but these condi- 
tions would not materially affect a people living in the canyon who did 
not possess or were but scantily supplied with horses and sheep. The 
stream when it is flowing is seldom more than a foot deep, generally 
only a few inches, except in times of flood, when it becomes a raging 
torrent, carrying everything before it. Hence irrigation would be im- 
practicable, even if its principles were known, nor is it essential here 
to successful horticulture. 
One of the characteristic features of the canyons at the present day 
is the immense number of peach trees within them. Wherever there 
is a favorable site, in some sheltered cove or little branch canyon, 
there is a clump of peach trees, in some instances perhaps as many 
as 1,000 in one “orchard.” When the peaches ripen, hundreds and 
even thousands of Navaho flock to the place, coming from all over the 
reservation, like an immense flock of vultures, and with disastrous 
results to the food supply. A few months after it is difficult to pro- 
cure even « handful of dried fruit. The peach trees are, of course, 
modern. They were introduced into this country originally by the 
Spanish monks, but in De Chelly there are not more than two or three 
