Bulletin, Volume 54U.S. Government Printing Office, 1913 - America |
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agricultural altitude Amer ancient inhabitants archeologic basalt basin Bull BULLETIN 54 PLATE BUREAU OF AMERICAN change of climate cliff climatic changes Colorado culture deposits drought Edgar EDGAR LEE HEWETT El Rito erosion Española Ethn ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 54 evaporation existence extensive fact feet forest fragments Frijoles canyon Geog geologic Glacial glaciers Hewett human humidity ibid Indian indicate irrigation Jemez mountains Jemez plateau JUNIUS HENDERSON Lake Bonneville Lake Lahontan land lava flows lower material mesas Mexico miles northern side northern wall occur Pajarito plateau period pine and cedar piñon pines places population portion precipitation present probably progressive desiccation Pueblo recent region Report Rio Grande valley Rito Rito de los river ROBBINS rock pines ruins sandstone Santa Fe showing slopes soil southern Southwest streams Surv temperature TENT ROCKS terraces Tertiary tion topography tufa U. S. Geol upper vegetation vicinity volcanic weathering wind writers
Popular passages
Page 61 - As in other desert regions, precipitation here results only from cyclonic disturbance, either broad or local, is extremely irregular, and is often violent. Sooner or later the "cloud-burst" visits every tract, and when it comes, the local drainage- way discharges in a few hours more water than is yielded to it by the ordinary precipitation of many years. The deluge scours out a channel which is far too deep and broad for ordinary needs and which centuries may not suffice to efface. The abundance...
Page 26 - In traveling over the region these larger features of the landscape may often seem, to one not thoroughly familiar with them, swallowed up or obscured by the magnitude and abruptness of the topographic forms in the immediate, vicinity of the observer, so that the final impression is that of a confused network of deep, narrow lateral canyons and rugged buttes. To understand the region, one must ever keep in mind the idea that here were originally gentle, uniform slopes, which have been deeply gashed...
Page 49 - We have here what seems to be, then, the life history of this pueblo from its culmination to its extinction, the gradually enlarging zone of room burials being an index of the decrease of the inhabitants. The evidence invariably shows that no sudden cataclysm overwhelmed the pueblos, no hasty, disorganized abandonment took place, no wars decimated them, but rather that, like a tree, they passed through successive stages of growth, decline, and decay to final extinction.
Page 19 - July, 1898. time, and at least three well-defined epochs are at present recognizable which may serve as guides to future observations, viz: 1. The Austin-Del Rio system, or Schumard knobs ; ancient volcanic necks or laccolites bordering the Rio Grande embayment, begun in later Cretaceous time, the lava sheets of which have been obliterated by erosion. 2. The lava flows of the Raton system, which are fissure eruptions of Tertiary time, and which are only partly removed by erosion. 3. The cinder cones...
Page 49 - ... Spaniards could not have been more than a tithe of what it was in prehistoric times [p. 406]. It appears that the valley of the Salt River in the neighborhood of Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa was the most densely populated region of this whole drainage area and apparently contained the oldest settlements. These facts may be ascribed to the ease with which the plains in this region could be irrigated as compared with other parts of the valley, or may have been due to the presence of more fertile land...
Page 18 - Huiitiiigton, 1912, pp. 401-409 ; Prof. Huntington's full memoir on this subject has not yet 'been published. (1913, p. 20) that " There are evidences that the country has undergone a slow progressive desiccation, extending over a long period of time. That the epoch of human occupancy of this region extends back into the period of greater humidity seems probable.
Page 19 - Schumard knobs; ancient volcanic necks or laccolites bordering the Rio Grande embayment, begun in later Cretaceous time, the lava sheets of which have been obliterated by erosion. 2. The lava flows of the Raton system, which are fissure eruptions of Tertiary time, and which are only partially removed by erosion. 3. The cinder cones and lava flows of the Capulin system, which are late Pleistocene, and which still maintain their original slope and extent. % This question was made the subject of investigation...
Page 61 - ... water than is yielded to it by the ordinary precipitation of many years. The deluge scours out a channel which is far too deep and broad for ordinary needs and which centuries may not suffice to efface. The abundance of these trenches, in various stages of obliteration, but all manifestly unsuited to the every-day conditions of the country, has naturally led many to believe that an age of excessive rainfall has but just ceased — an opinion not rarely advanced by travelers in other arid regions...
Page 19 - It is also evident from the investigations that eruptive activity has occurred in the Texas-New Mexican region from Cretaceous to the present time, and at least three well-defined epochs are at present recognizable which may serve as a guide to future observations, viz : 1. The Austin-Del Rio system, or...