ARCH^OLOGICAL FIELD WORK IN ARIZONA IN 1897. 613 



was filled with clay, it had not become so hard that the walls of the 

 rooms could not be easily distinguished on account of their superior 

 compactness. 



The large circular or elongated oval depressions in the immediate 

 neighborhood of some of the house mounds have been identified as 

 the sites of former reservoirs. Other more irregular depressions mark 

 the places from which earth had been excavated by the ancient 

 builders, and it is possible that these depressions were also utilized 

 as water holes by the ancients. The reservoir at Buena Yista is one 

 of the largest that was discovered, yet no irrigating ditches leading 

 into it were distinctly traced. A depression full of water, to the right 

 of the road as one approaches Epley's ruin, is said to have existed 

 there before the Mexicans excavated adobe from the adjacent lands, and 

 may possibly be the remains of an ancient reservoir. 



There is abundant evidence that the ancient people of the Pueblo 

 Viejo Yalley led the water from the Gila River over the plain by means 

 of canals for purposes of agriculture, for in many places the depres- 

 sions marking the old ditches may be traced for considerable distances. 

 These signs are well marked near San Jose and Buena Vista, where 

 the surface of the laud has been least changed by the plow. I have 

 been informed by some of the older residents that when they came 

 into the country, before the Montezuma and San Jose irrigation ditches 

 had been constructed, the ancient aqueducts were much more con- 

 spicuous than they are to-day, and that sections of the modern ditches 

 follow the course of the ancient waterways. 



We found the slopes of the hills marked out with lines of stones, 

 arranged in rectangular forms of great regularity, extending over many 

 acres of ground. Some of these, especially on the foothills near San 

 Jose, were very extensive. These lines of stones are regarded, not as 

 remains of house walls, but as boundaries of ancient terraced gardens. 

 If this interpretation be a correct one, it appears that the ancient inhab- 

 itants of Pueblo Viejo cultivated not only the bottom lands, slightly 

 elevated above the Gila River, but also the side hills, which Avhite 

 farmers have not yet brought under cultivation. It is probable that 

 these terraced gardens were not irrigated by ditches from the river, 

 but that water was carried to them by the natives in ollas from some 

 neighboring reservoir at the foot of the hills. 



As no remains of houses were discovered near these terraced farms 

 it would seem that the ancients cultivated lands some distance from 

 their dwellings. Good examples of these terraced gardens exist near 

 the Solomonville slaughter house, and from that place along the side 

 of the San Simon Valley. The best exami^les that I examined were 

 not far from San Jose. There is a close resemblance between these 

 lines of bowlders and the so-called bowlder sites in the Verde Valley, 

 which bear every evidence of having been ancient gardens. There is 

 little debris about them, such as would accumulate if they were parts 



