Very few are found in the high forests, for it is useless to look for ruins at an altitude exceeding 8,000 feet—climate, lack of space for cultivation, together with the steepness of slopes forbid. The lower limits of the ruins seem mostly dependent on natural features. On the side of Arizona, but not on the sea-coast the ruins ascend within 1,000 feet of the sea level. There are said to be traces of the succession of ruins along the Canadian River far across the great plains."[1]
"There is nothing in the natural resources of New Mexico that could maintain a large number of people whose industrial means of support were those which belonged to the "stone age." The water supply of the territory is remarkably scant, and, while the Indian knew and used springs which the present settler is sometimes unacquainted with, the value of such springs was not very great. They might suffice for the wants of one or a few families, some times for a small village. To such watering places the Indian was limited, outside of the river bottoms of larger streams. But the larger streams are few and far between, and only portions of their course are suitable for cultivation. Only the Rio Grande, the San Juan, the Chama, parts of the Pecos, Jemez, Puerco and Upper Gila irrigate large valleys."[2]
Mr. L. H. Morgan says that "New Mexico is a poor country for civilized man, but quite well adapted to the sedentary Indians, who cultivated about one acre out of every hundred thousand. This region and the San Juan immediately north of it possessed a number of narrow, fertile valleys, containing together possibly 50,000 inhabitants, and it is occupied now by their descendants (excepting the San Juan) in manner and form as it was then. The region is favorable to the communistic mode of life, cultivation of the soil by irrigation being a necessity."
The disappointment of the Spaniards, who came from the mountain city and were familiar with the luxuriant growth of the southern coasts, and found this region so destitute of forests and so silent and lonely, must have been great, for it was a new experience to them. So it is with every one who traverses the region. The scenery is entirely different from that which prevails elsewhere, and the life is as different as the scenery.
As to the age of the pueblos very little can be said. One supposition is that the people formerly dwelt in one-story houses, which were clustered together in a circle with a court in the center, something like those in Arizona Territory, which Bandelier says has the "checker-board" appearance; but the attack of the wild tribes, which were the Navajos and Apaches, compelled
- ↑ The plains of San Augustine in Southwestern New Mexico, the plateau of the Natanes in Eastern Arizona, the banks of the Rio Grande from the San Louis Valley to the end of the gorge appear not to have been settled in ancient times.
- ↑ A line from Taos in the extreme north as far south as where San Marcial now stands, makes a length of nearly 230 miles; from east to west they spread from longitude 105°30′, (Taos and Pecos) to nearly 110° 30′, (the Moqui villages.) Lieut. Simpson makes the distance east and west 360 miles. (See Final Report, Part I., p. 119.)
