alone mark the localities. It is impossible
to travel more than a mile or two along the
margin of the lowlands without encountering
them, and one of our guides, who knew
the ground well, told me that at least one
hundred thousand people must at one time
have occupied this valley. The ruins follow
the river quite to the mouth of the first
cañon by which the Gila cuts through the
Pina-leña mountains. In the cañada of
the Aravaypa, on the western side of this
range, I examined the ruins of two pueblos,
one being a fortification covering the top
of a steep hill which guarded the entrance
to the Aravaypa cañon. All along the San
Pedro valley, through which Mr. Runk's
party travelled for one hundred and sixty
miles, ruined pueblos were frequently met
with. Amongst them the remains of pottery,
such as is in general use among the town
Indians and Mexicans, were picked up in
great abundance. Remains of acequias
also were very numerous. Between Camp
Grant, where I left my party to enter Old
Mexico and the Pima villages, the mesas
bordering on the Gila are pretty thickly
studded with ruins, but further west than
the confluence of the Rio Verde no more
traces of pueblos are to be found.

Two good-sized ruins are situated near
the Pima villages; one is known as Casa
Montezuma, the other as Casa Grande.
Casa Montezuma, also called Casa Blanca,
consists of the remains of four large houses,
one of which is tolerably perfect as a ruin.
Around it are piles of earth, showing where
others had been, and although ten miles
distant from the river, all the intervening
space is intersected by acequias, and was no
doubt once under cultivation. The chief ruin
is four stories high, and forty feet by fifty
wide; the walls face the cardinal points,
and have four estufas four foot by two in
size. The rafters inside had been almost
entirely destroyed by fire, but as far as
could be seen, they were very roughly
hewn. The walls were built of brick,
mortar, and pebbles, and were smoothed
without and plastered within. The
arrangements of the rooms, the presence of
doors, and the absence of terraces, would
lead one not to attribute this building to
Aztec origin.

Casa Grande is situated a little below
the junction of the Rio Verde and the
Salinas; it is a rectangular ruin, two
hundred and twenty feet by sixty-eight, whose
hides face the cardinal points. The highest
walls are, as usual, to be found in the centre
of the pile, and they appear to have been
three or four stories high.

Besides abundance of broken pottery, are
found sea-shells, often pierced, and otherwise
converted into ornaments, about the
ruins which skirt the Gila and neighbouring
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 kindred race, the Papagos,
the chief vendors of shells, for they
are great traders, and wander through all
Northern Sonora, from the Gulf of
California to the Sierre Madre, and even now
supply the scanty population of this region
with sea-salt obtained from some salt hikes
near the coast.

The Pimas themselves state positively,
that at one time they were a great and
powerful nation, living in houses similar to
the ruins found on the Gila; but after the
destruction of their kingdom they travelled
southward, and settled in the valley, where
they now dwell; fearing lest they should
again become an object of envy to a future
enemy, they were content ever afterwards
to live in huts.

Lastly, I would mention one more cluster
of ruins, which, although they are south of
the boundary line of the United States,
belong, without doubt, to the same class as
those I have been considering; these are the
Casas Grandes and Casa de Janos, situated
on the Rio Casas Grandes, which flows
northward into the Laguna de Guzman in
North-western Chihuahua. The former,
according to the historian Clavegero, is
similar in every respect to the ruined
fortresses of New Mexico, consisting of
three 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 stream are many mounds, in
which have been found earthen vessels,
painted white, blue, and violet, weapons of
stone, but none of iron. The following
particulars are from Bartlett's personal
narrative: "The ruins of Casas Grandes
face the cardinal points, and consist of
fallen and erect walls, the latter varying in
height from five to thirty feet, projecting
above the heaps of ruins which have
crumbled to decay. Were the height