Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-12-30
WONDERS OF ARIZONA.

The diggers among the old ruins OF
dead empires have been and are making
many wonderful and important diseov-
cries. Among the latest and most in
teresting of these ancient relics recently
unearthed are those of glorious old HO-
mer's strong-walled city of Troy, by DR..
Schleimann, as detailed in his fascinat-
ing report, published in last Saturdays
Herald The learned doctor, at the bot
tom Of the debris OVERLAPPING the city,
the accommodations of three thousand
wears, finds the evidences of a high civ
ilization among the relics of ancient
Troy, and thence, in the different strata
upward, from one occupation of the
city to another, he finds, from the evil
dence Of the artificial remains there
in, steady decline from civilization
toward barbarism. As a geological
historian, his record of the ruins OF
Troy establishes his reputation, and his
Herald report is worthy the position Of
an explanatory appendix to the Hjdd.
At the same time, the diggers among
the ruins of the island of Cyprus, the
Temple Of Diana, Ancient Jerusalem
nearly a hundred feet under the streets
Of the present city-and likewise among
the ruins of Moab, and among the
wonderful treasures unearthed in Assy-
ria, on the Tigris and EuphTates, are fill
ing up the blanks in the history Of en-
pires and peoples past away, and, back
10 the deluge, are confirming the records
Of the Old Testament.
And these historical ruins of three,
four or five thousand years are not con-
fined TO the Old World. In Central and
South America there are the remains of
an ancient civilization, dating further
back, perhaps, than that of Rome or
Carthage; and there still remain in Mex
leo some fragments of ancient temples,
whose history had been lost in tradition
in the time of CoTteZ. North of Mexico
and south of Greenland no evidences
have yet been discovered of the exist
ence anywhere, at any time, of higher
civilization than that of the Aztees an
terror TO Columbus; and these AZtecs re-
mains are confined to WesternTex New
Mexico, Colorado. Southern Utah and
Arizona. They indicate a state OF civil
ization like that OF the AZtecs in Mex
leo as COrtez found them, and the tra-7
dition Is general among the Mexican
at this day that their ances-
tors in a great migration came down to
Mexico from the north. Fremont, Albert,
Emory, Sitgreaves, and other govern
ment explorers Of our vast acquisitions
from Mexico, have given us their
sketches and descriptions Of numerous
ruins of old Aztec temples and dwellings
Ia New Mexico and Arizona, and of their
lrrigating canals and theirpottery. They
indicate a civilization as low as the low
est Of DR.. Schliemann's descending scale 1
Ct Troy, though far above any advances
Of the mound-builders of our Northwest |
ern States.
We have a report, however, from San |
Francisco, that the ruins of a great city |
have recently been stumbled upon by |
some prospecting miners in northeast
ern Arizona, and that these ruins tell of |
a prosperous community that must have 1
been destroyed or transferred farther /
south thousands of years ago. It is /
thought so from the fact that a deep
canyon near the heart of the city has /
been made by the winter washings Of |
that region, which has required at least /
q thousand years Of those washings to |
cut through the rocks to its present /
depth. This whole report, however,
may be q California eaDard, though we /
expect from Captain Wheel
sris exploring expedition in Arizona and |
Colorado discoveries more interesting to i
Americans than even the finding Of the \
sncircling walls and inside relics OF an
,so,.f Tirrlr~