The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-02-11


riiee.
A correspondent of the n Y. Sun, under
date of Los Muertos, Arizona, December
10, says: The Hemenway expedition, under
the direction of Frank Gushing, has been
at work for several months, and has exca-
waited the ruins of city three miles long
and two miles wide. The excavations are
not continuous, but have been made at
various points along the main street and
1.-THE limits of the town, the extent of which
is clearly established. Mr.. Gushing acquired
from the Zuni Indians, among whom he has
lived for some years, the knowledge of Gus
toms and traditions which enabled him to
find the buried cities of the Salt River
valley. The first one excavated is called
Los Muertos, the City of the Dead. Others
that have been partially explored are El
Pueblo de los Hornas, the City of Ovens;
Ell Ciudad de los Pueblitos, and FL Pueblo
de los Piedras But these are only part
of the chain of cities that once covered the
desert. There are nineteen buried cities
in the Salt River valley alone, and Los
Muertos, which had population of at least
10000, is one of the smallest The entire
valley was once a system of cities with ad-
iacept farms, and up in the mountains are
sacrifcial caves and pueblos of stone, many
of which never have been explored and are
entirely unknown to the wandering tourist
and sightseer.
The people who lived in these cities were
not Aztecs, as had been supposed. They
were of the race that preceded the Aztecs,
and had upon this continent civilization
older than the pyramids. This is proved
by the human remains and relics found in
the houses that have been dug out. Eth
biological research prosecuted by Mr.. Cush-
ingby the comparative method demonstrates
that the dwellers of the plain were Toltees,
and that they reached high state of civil
lization many centuries before the Aztecs
appeared. They were probably of Asiatic
origin, but not Mongoloid. The Indian
of the Pacific coast appears TO be Mongoloid
and later immigrant from Asia The
age of the Toltec ruins is reckoned in thou
sands of years.
The Toltecs were agricultural people,
and had the plain of Tempe under high
state of cultivation. The climate and char
acter of soil we're apparently the same as
now, and vast system of irrigation was
required to make the land productive.
The bitches dug by the Toltecs can be
traced to-day, and the maps made by the
surveyor of the Hemenway party show at
least 300 miles of this work. The plain
appears to be level, but in fact it slopes
very gradually to the southwest. The
Toltecs were better irrigators than the
farmers of to-day. They were satisfied
with very slight flow, and consequently
were able to conduct water to every part
of the plain of Tempe. The higher ground,
which is now desert, was reached by
levees upon which the water flowed. The
bottoms of these bitches and levees, har-
dened by the water flowing over them, have
resisted the levelling power of the elements,
The banks have disappeared, leaving the
bottoms elevated slightly above the plain,
and these hardened surfaces are now used
as roads all over the valley. In some places
the irrigating canal was cut through the
solid rock with stone implements, and at
Mesa City the Mormons are now using one
of these ancient canals. The cost of
making that cut to-day, with improved
tools and machinery, would be $4,000.
The manner of building the bitches and
keeping them in repair is indicated by two
parallel rows of stones along the sides of
the bitches. These stones are of diorite,
and were used as chipping stones to sharpen
the stone implements with which the dig
ging was done. Most of them seem to
have been worn out and thrown aside, and
probably they were covered up with the
earth thrown out as the work advanced.
The washing away of the banks by the
ruins of centuries has left them exposed.
Many, no doubt, were used in repairing the
banks from time to time. The natural in
ference is that the bitches were maintained
during long period Of time. The modern
canal system of the valley is only forty-one
miles in extent and cost 81 100000. The
Toltec bitches were of greater size aud ex-
tent, no less than 300 miles of main canal
alone having been traced, and could not be
built to-day for less than 81, 100000. No
less than 100000 acres were cultivated in
the Salt River valley by means of these
ancient bitches.
The Toltecs had no occasion to raise
more corn than they could consume, and
therefore the population of the plain may
be calculated 90 the basis of cultivated
acreage. The 1000 Pima Indians on the
Gila irrigate 10000 acres, support them
selves, and sell 100000 pounds of wheat
yearly. 1t is within bounds to place the
ancient population at 250, 600, aud the ex-
tent of the ruined cities justiHes that esti-
mate. That, however, is only the popula-
tion of the plain of Tempe. The ruins
still uncovered, but traced by unmistakable
surface indications, extend through the foot
hills, into the mountains, over them, and
across the next valley, aud again across
another range, and into third valley.
In the mountains the buildings are of stone
instead of adobe, and the fields are terraced
and divided by low stone walls. Mr..
Cushing is satisfied that these ruins extend
as far north as Utah and southern Colo
RADIO, throughout all the plains and valleys
of Arizona, as far east as the Rio Grande,
and south into central Mexico He even
says, privately, with the caution of sci
enlist, that he is quite certain that the
Taltec civilization can be traced along the
whole Pacific slope, from Alaska to Chill.
The ruins of Los Muertos are being thor
oughly examined, because they are typical,
and also because they have been buried,
and therefore protected from the ravages
Of time, tourists, and ranchers. Twenty
two large blocks of buildings have been
uncovered, and three car loads of relics
have been sent to Boston. These relics
consist of pottery, implements. and skele-
tons. One of the ruined buildings meas
ures 400 by 375 feet, another is 480 feet
long, aud many of the buildings are 300
feet square. The adobe walls are some
times seven feet thick and two stories high.
Connected with each building is pyral
mound, around the base of which are the
funeral urns containing the ashes Of Gre
mated Toltecs. Entrance to the buildings
were sometimes through doorways and
sometimes through holes in the roofs.
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