SCIENCE NEWS. 



183 



rado, but there are comparatively few 

 persons outside of Arizona and New 

 Mexico who know that in southern 

 Arizona there is a field far more in- 

 teresting and of wider range. So 

 eminent authority as Major J. W. 

 Powell, recently of the United States 

 Geological Survey, is quoted in sup- 

 port of this statement. Conservative 

 estimates put the population of the 

 Gila country at fully 2,000,000 when 

 it was at its height. 



The Gila remains have been but 

 little explored because of the inac- 

 cessibility of the region, the intoler- 

 able dry heat during two-thirds of 

 each year, and the total lack of water 

 where it is needed. The mining 

 prospectors who have tramped for 

 years over all the mountains and 

 through every valley in the Territory 

 have given no heed to this part of 

 the Gila country, because, no water 

 being there, it would be useless to 

 attempt to develop a mine eveu on 

 good surface indications. An ex- 

 pedition under Frank Gushing did 

 some work near Los Muertos, which 

 is known in the Southwest as thePom- 

 peii of Arizona, but with the break- 

 ing down of his health the enterprise 

 came to an end. The area of the 

 country in which the remains of a 

 prehistoric people are found is some 

 300 square miles. It extends from 

 the junction of the Gila and Colorado 

 Rivers eastward to the Superstition 

 Mountains, and from Phcenix on the 

 north almost to the Mexican line. 

 Near Casa Gande the most extensive 

 Indian remains are to be found. 



The country is a ruin from one 

 end to the other. All parts of it bear 

 unmistakable evidences of irrigation 

 canals several hundred miles long 

 and built w ; th exactness and skill, 

 and of cities of 30,000 and 40,000 

 population. One can walk for miles 

 and find every foot of the sandy sur- 

 face more or less mixed with broken 

 pottery. The paint is still on them, 

 and is not in the least faded though 

 it has lain exposed for ages. In the 

 locality of Mesa City and Tempe an 

 overflow from the Gila at some dis- 

 tant period washed against the ruins 

 until they crumbled and were spread 

 out level with the country. Back ten 

 miles from the Gila 1 liver the ground 

 is higher, and was once the site of a 

 city. Portions of the wall by which 

 it was protected are still standing 

 more tha'i twenty feet in thickness. 

 Inside are the mound like ruins of 

 the houses, which, being less durable, 

 have crumbled. The buildings must 

 have been vei'y large, for in some in- 

 stances the mounds are 300 feet in 

 length by 200 in width and 20 in 

 height. The space enclosed by the 

 wall is about fifty miles by three. 



(To be continued.) 



