The Arizona champion., 1890-10-04
RECLAlMING THE DESERT.


hECLAIMlNi 7E 9EOEhIs
 Possibilities of Irrigation in the South-
 west-Opening the Ancient Canals.
 Though it has long been known that the tribes of aborigines who once existed in the states and territories of the south west had a system of agriculture which permitted them to subsist in towns of considerable size, we have not realized until recently the extent of their re- sources and the ability they displayed as engineers. The Hemenway expedition has examined ancient lines of canals in southwestern Arizona in the valley of the Gila and it's chief tributary the Saloda, rivers which pour their waters finally into the Gulf of California, like their northerly neighbor. the Colorado. Between the Salado and the Gila, where there is now only a growth of such plants as endure a torrid climate, without rain for the greater part of the year, the ancient people had their towns and cities. Some of the communal houses were several hundred feet square and three or four stories high. One city was traced for three or four miles, and contained between forty and fifty of these large structures, which were irreg- ularly placed after the fashion of Indian towns. Each large house is supposed by MT. Cushing. the ethnologist of the party, who has made the Pueblo Indians life long study, to have held the members of one clan. The walls were sometimes of adobe bricks, and sometimes they were strengthened with posts and wattes. Each town has a separate larger ruin surrounded by a strong wall so as to form yard. Here MT. Gushing locates the abode of the chief ruler or priest, the stores of the town and the citadel in case of an attack. It is estimated that the two valleys of the Gila and Salado sup ported at one period no less than 200, ,000 souls.
 This could only have been accom- plished by irrigation. It appears that the water from the Salado was run across the flat land between it and the Gila for a distance of from fifteen 10 twenty miles. The new settlers have already begun to use the ditches con- trived by the extinct population. The canals were dug in terrace outline, filled with brush and then burned out in order to solidify the bottom and sides. 'Mr. Cushing" says The American Natural ist, lis of the opinion that they used rafts made of reeds for navigating these canals, and this seems more probable from the heavy materials that have been brought from distance. It seems cer- tain that they hoated the pine timber used in their building operations down the Salt and Gila rivers from the distant mountains.
 These people burned their dead as a general rule, collecting the ashes into an urn, which was commonly broken, in sign Of death; but the expedition found so many skeletons buried within the larger buildings mentioned, just beneath the floor, that it appears to have been the custom to bury chiefs and priests. A food vessel and highly decorated water jar were buried with the corpse, and sometimes arrow and spear heads. In one grave a large stone knife and tur- quois ornaments were found. Tools and weapons are generally of stone, and there
  ings, inlaid with turquois, and other decorations common to semi-savage tribes. The pottery is of many colors and carries a fine glaze. They had smelling furnaces in the mountains, and appear to have stood upon much the same plane of cultivation as those Zunis to whom MT. Gushing is guide, philoso- pher and friend.
 The opening up of these old canals is the first step to cause the deserts now covered with mesquite to support a fair population. With modern appliances it is not impossible that the Colorado, rush. ing along the bottom of an enormous cleft in the earth, down which Maj. Powell made his venturesome trip years ago, should spread its fertilizing waters over portions of the Yuma and Mohave deserts instead of losing them in the salt waves of the Gulf. The climate is ad- verse to irrigation in some respects, be- cause the more you separate the streams and rills the more you expose the water body to surface evaporation In lands like Arizona and New Mexico the Persian system of underground streams, broken at intervals by wells, ought to be tried. A system of covered canals would be the best in a climate like that of New Mexico, for the evapora- tion upward would be at a minimum. Whether this country will ever be re- claimed to do the work it can under a thorough system of irrigation is a ques- tion. Perhaps it were best left to indi- vidual or municipal, to corporate or state enterprise. National schemes of the kind are too prolific of jobbery and corruption. It is a matter, however, that will repay the study of those having large amounts to invest for slow but sure returns, dependent for success on the financial prudence and sound engineer ing which have caused Holland to be- come the richest country of its size in the world.-New York Times.
 TOO MUCH FLESH.f