558 General Notes. 
While no accurate computations have been attempted, it is sup- 
> posed, taking into consideration the number of towns or cities 
known to have existed in the Gila and Salt River valleys, that the 
population could not have been less than two hundred thousand. 
There is every reason to believe that these places were not succes- 
sively, but simultaneously occupied, especially when we remember 
that they constructed large irrigating canals for a distance of fifteen 
or twenty miles, which with their rude implements must have been 
a gigantic undertaking. Their irrigating system was extensive and 
complete, and covered almost, if not quite, all the cultivable parts 
of the two valleys. The present inhabitants of the soil have taken 
advantage of these ancient waterways, constructed at such expendi- 
ture of prehistoric labor, and they now run many of their irrigat- 
ing canals in these ditches. These ancient canals were constructed 
with care. A cross section exhibits a series of terraces widening 
towards the top, so that a large or small quantity of water could be 
accommodated and a good depth secured. After the canals were 
dug they were puddled and then burnt, probably by filling them 
with brush and then setting it on fire, so that they almost equall 
terra cotta in durability. Mr. Cushing is of opinion that "d 
were not used for irrigation alone, but for navigation as wel. 
There are indications that they used rafts made of reeds (balsas) 
for navigating these canals, and this appears more probable from 
the heavy materials that have been brought from a distance. It 
seems certain that they floated the pine timber used in their 
building operations down the Salt and Gila Rivers from the dis- 
tant mountains; it is too much to suppose that they carried this 
material upon their backs for a distance of a hundred miles. _ 
urial customs of these people were peculiar and cons 
of two methods, viz., cremation and interment. In the case of 
the priestly class the body was wrapped 
deposited beneath the floor of the house. Generally the bodies 
were laid along the east wall of the building, with head to the 
east, although this custom was not invariable. Whe 
this clan died, a grave was dug in the floor, a foot and a half or 
two feet deep, and the body placed therein; it was then covere 
with adobe mud and packed firmly around the corpse. When this 
covering dried, and the soft parts and wrappings disappeared, the 
skeleton would be found enclosed in a rude sort of sarcophagus. 
In numerous instances, two, and more rarely three, skeletons we 
found in one grave. In all such cases of double or triple bu i 
the skeletons indicate that it was male and female, or one male pi 
two females. Buried with each cadaver was a food vessel 
water jar, and sometimes several of each, often highly decor: dent 
That they were wrapped in cloths, presumably of cotton, 18 eal 
from the impressions of the cloth made upon the soft adobe pene 
Fragments of this material were found and preserved, 
ing. 
withstanding its decomposed condition. 
