40 



IN'DIAXS OF TIIK SOrTIIWEST. 



Their tools must have been rude, probably of wood, 

 with which the ground was dug before and after the 

 seed was planted. In much of the territory occupied 

 near the sources of the streams, the valley lands were 

 kept moist by the underflow and did not require irriga- 

 tion. At the elevation at which these streams leave 

 the mountains there is considerable rain in late sum- 

 mer, enough to mature corn even on the upland mesas. 

 Reservoirs are found near many of these mesa pueblos 

 which received the water from the mountain gulches 

 and retained it for household purposes. In some cases 

 the water thus impounded was used to irrigate the land. 

 Near Solomon ville on the upper portion of the Gila 

 River the gardens were arranged in terraces on the 

 sides and at the bases of mesas, and were watered from 

 reservoirs which retained the water falling above. 



Irrigation. It is along the middle and lower courses 

 of the Salt and Gila Rivers that evidences are found of 

 irrigation practised on a large scale. The Hemenway 

 Archaeological Expedition, in 1887-1888, explored Lcs 

 Muertos, a veritable city with thirty-six large com- 

 munal structures, nine miles southeast of Tempe, 

 Arizona. This city, nine miles from the Salt River, 

 was supplied with water by a large canal 7 ft deep, 

 4 ft. wide at the bottom, and 30 ft. wide at the top. 

 The walls and the bottom of the canal were very hard 

 as if they had been plastered with adobe clay after the 

 soil liad been thoroughly packed by tramping. It was 

 suggested by the investigators that fires had been built 

 in the canals and the claj^ baked by this means. Many 



