196 NEW TRACKS IN NOETH AMEEICA. 



The land is deeply eroded, being cut np into lofty mesas of 

 variable size, and is very arid and wortliless. Tlie seven loi 

 Moqni villages crest the edges of some of the mesas which ii^ 

 form the south-eastern escarpment of the Colorado Platean. I5 

 Piu'ther to the north-west, and nearer the Colorado, there is ■]^ 

 another group of pueblos ia ruins, larger than those of the 

 Moqui Indians, but situated, like them, on the flat summits 

 of mesas, containing estufas, reservoirs, terraces, aqueducts, 

 and walls of at least four stories high. iN'o trace has as yet 

 been found of theii' former iuliabitants. 



Kext we come to the ruins on the Colorado Chiquito and i;,} 

 its southern tributaries. There are ruins upon El Moro, 



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ruins nortli of Zuni, Old Zuni, and otliers along tlie Zuni 

 Ehxr ; rnins^ also, on tlie Eio Pnerco of the "VTest, amongst 

 "wliieli our parties found abundance of potterj^ ; and tliere are 

 most extensive ruins in the main valley, both above the falls 

 and betAveen the falls and the entrance of the canon of the j^ 

 ChiquitOj scattered along a fertile basin of at least a hundred 

 miles in length. At Pueblo Creek the remains of several 

 fortified pueblos were foimd^ cro^Tiing the heights which 

 command Aztec Pass j but west of this point (longitude 113^ 

 west) no other ruins have as yet been discovered. 



Leaving the basin of the Colorado Chiquito, we pass south- 

 ward to that of the Rio Gila, where the most extensive ruins 

 of all are to be found. Some fine streams enter this river on 

 the north, draining a country very little known, but of great 

 interest, and containing many fertile valleys. The chief of 



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these tributaries are the Eios Preito, Bonito, San Carlos, 

 Salinas, and Eio Yerde, which latter two unite before joining 

 the Gila, twelve miles from the Pima villages, and lastly, the 

 Agua Pia. The great New Mexican guide, Leroux, started 

 northward from the Pima villages ia May, 1854, crossed over 



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