Apeil 3, 1896.] 



SGIENGE. 



497 



relations between weather and the life of 

 the region, human and sub-human, are thus 

 manifold — indeed not only the superficial 

 but the fundamental characteristics of the 

 living things, the very laws of individual 

 and collective development, are largely 

 traceable to weather conditions ; but in a 

 summary statement it is impossible to do 

 more than suggest the bearing of the re- 

 searches relating to this subject. 



AECH^OLOGY. 



During the earlier expedition it was as- 

 certained that prehistoric works abound 

 throughout much of Papagueria ; during 

 the later journeys the observations on this 

 subject were extended. In almost every 

 valley containing sufficient water to sup- 

 port a population howsoever limited, ruins 

 of ancient villages, remains of irrigation 

 works, etc., are found ; the only exceptional 

 valleys being those in which modern civili- 

 zation is so extensive as to destroy the more 

 conspicuous traces of earlier culture. More- 

 over, the prehistoric ruins are in general 

 more extensive than the modern villages, 

 while the ancient irrigation works and 

 fields are carried further up the valley-sides 

 than the modern acequias and farms, indica- 

 ting that the ancient agriculture was the 

 more extended. The artifacts found in the 

 ancient villages prove that the prehistoric 

 people were potters and that their fictile 

 ware was somewhat finer in quality than 

 that manufactured by the modern Papago ; 

 that they were a peaceful folk, using stone 

 axes, mortars and pestles, hammers, foot- 

 balls, etc.; that they had temples or other 

 dominant structures more elaborately fur- 

 nished than their ordinary dwellings ; and 

 there is fairly clear indication that they 

 corralled a small domestic animal, but 

 that they were without larger stock such as 

 was later introduced by the Spaniards. As- 

 sociated with these ancient relics of well- 

 known kinds there is a distinctive class of 



ancient works known generally among the 

 Mexicans as ' las trincheras ' (entranched 

 mountains), usually found in the immediate 

 vicinity of fertile valleys and especially 

 characteristic of portions of these valleys 

 now, as in prehistoric times, especially 

 adapted to settlement. Commonly the site 

 is a steep-sided butte or isolated mountain 

 several hundred feet high, and tte work it- 

 self is a rough and rather irregular wall of 

 loose stones circumscribing the butte near 

 its summit ; sometimes the walls are mul- 

 tiplied or bunt out into bastions, particu- 

 larly on the gentler slopes, and they may be 

 interrupted where the slopes are precipitous. 

 The walls support either narrow pathways 

 or broad terraces on which house-circles are 

 sometimes found ; and along and within the 

 walls the ground is frequently sprinkled with 

 potsherds and wasters of foreign rock. !N"o 

 granaries or reservoirs have been found 

 within the enclosures, nor is there anything 

 to indicate permanent or long-continued 

 occupancy. 



Specially noteworthy examples of this 

 class of works were carefully surveyed dur- 

 ing the recent expedition, near San Eafael 

 de Alamito, in Magdalena Valley, 35 miles 

 southeast of Altar; the two principal buttes 

 being known specifically as ' Las Trin- 

 cheras,' or as ' Trinchera ' and ' Trin- 

 cherita.' Thelarger butte, nearly amile long 

 and 650 feet high, is terraced from bottom to 

 top half way round, and on the other side is 

 walled and terraced in part ; the smaller is 

 similarly terraced most of the way round. 

 The retaining-walls or revetments are mas- 

 sive and in some cases fully 20 feet in 

 height, and are usually carried from two to 

 five feet above the terrace in the form of 

 breastworks, while free walls of equal 

 height are distributed over the gentler 

 slopes; and fragments of pottery and stone 

 artifacts, as well as spalls and cores of 

 transported rock, besprinkle the ground 

 and might be collected in tons. These 



