200 NEW TRACKS IN NOETH AMEEICA, 



the ruins wliicli skii't the Gila and uciglibouriug streams^ 

 showing that these people must have had some intercourse 

 with tribes living along the coast. These shells may have 

 been brought by tribes inhabiting the Lower Colorado across 

 the Sonora Desert, to exchange for food, clothing, and other 

 Pima manufactures ; but I think it most probable that the 

 kindi-ed race, the Papagos, were the chief venders of shells, 

 for they are great traders, and wander through all Northern 

 Sonora, from the Gulf of California to the Sierra Madre, and 

 even now supply the scanty population of this region with 

 sea-salt obtained from some salt lakes near the coast. 



The Pimas themselves state positively that at one time they 

 were a great and powerful nation, li\'ing in houses similar to 

 the ruins foimd on the Gila; but after the destruction of 

 their kingdom they travelled southward, settled in the valley 

 where they now dwell, and, fearing lest they should agaia 

 become an object of envy to a futiu-e enemy, were content 

 ever afterwards to live in huts. 



Lastly, I would mention one more cluster of ruins which, 

 although they lie south of the boundary line of the United 

 States, belong without doubt to the same class as those I 



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have been considering ; these are the Casas Grandcs and Casa 

 de Janos, situated on the Eio Casas Grandes, which flows 

 northward into the Lagima de Guzman in North-western 

 Chiliuahua. The former, according to the historian Clave- 

 gero, is similar in every respect to the ruined fortresses of 

 'New Mexico, consisting of tlii'ee floors, with a terrace above 

 them, and without any entrance to the ground floor. The 

 doors led into the buildings on the second floor, so that 

 scaling ladders were necessary. A canal, says Dr. Wislizenus, 

 conveyed water from a spring to this place. A watch-tower, 

 probably Casa Janos, stands two leagues to the south-west of 

 it, commanding a wide extent of country, and along the 



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