The Cliff Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona | Page 8

have already been given. The pinnacle is perfectly
plumb.
The rock of which the canyon walls are formed is a massive sandstone
in which the lines of bedding are almost completely obliterated. It is
rather soft in texture, and has been carved by atmospheric erosion into
grotesque and sometimes beautiful forms. In places great blocks have
fallen off, leaving smooth vertical surfaces, extending sometimes from
the top nearly to the stream bed, 400 feet or more in height and as much
in breadth. In the lower parts of the canyons the walls, sometimes of
the character described, sometimes with the surfaces and angles
smoothed by the flying sand, are generally vertical and often overhang,

descending sheer to the canyon bottom without talus or intervening
slopes of débris. The talus, where there is any, is slight and consists of
massive sandstone of the same character as the walls, but much
rounded by atmospheric erosion. The enlarged map (plate XLIII) shows
something of this character.
Near its mouth the whole bottom of the canyon consists of an even
stretch of white sand extending from cliff to cliff. A little higher up
there are small areas of alluvium, or bottom land, in recesses and coves
in the walls and generally only a foot or two above the stream bed. Still
higher up these areas become more abundant and of greater extent,
forming regular benches or terraces, generally well raised above the
stream bed. At the Casa Blanca ruin, 7 miles up the canyon, the bench
is 8 or 10 feet above the stream. Each little branch canyon and deep
cove in the cliffs is fronted by a more or less extended area of this
cultivable bottom land. Ten miles up the talus has become a prominent
feature. It consists of broken rock, sand, and soil, generally overlying a
slope of massive sandstone, such as has been described, and which
occasionally crops out on the surface. With the development of the
talus the area of bottom land dwindles, and the former encroaches more
and more until a little above the junction of Monument canyon the
bottom land is limited to narrow strips and small patches here and
there.
These bottom lands are the cultivable areas of the canyon bottom, and
their occurrence and distribution have dictated the location of the
villages now in ruins. They are also the sites of all the Navaho
settlements in the canyon. The Navaho hogans are generally placed
directly on the bottoms; the ruins are always so located as to overlook
them. Only a very small proportion of the available land is utilized by
the Navaho, and not all of it was used by the old village builders. The
Navaho sites, as a whole, are far superior to the village sites.
The horticultural conditions here, while essentially the same as those of
the whole pueblo region, present some peculiar features. Except for a
few modern examples there are no traces of irrigating works, and the
Navaho work can not be regarded as a success. The village builders

probably did not require irrigation for the successful cultivation of their
crops, and under the ordinary Indian methods of planting and
cultivation a failure to harvest a good crop was probably rare. After the
Harvest season it is the practice of the Navaho to abandon the canyon
for the winter, driving their flocks and carrying the season's produce to
more open localities in the neighboring valleys. The canyon is not a
desirable place of residence in the winter to a people who live in the
saddle and have large flocks of sheep and goats, but there is no
evidence that the old inhabitants followed the Navaho practice.
During most of the year there is no water in the lower 10 miles of the
canyons, where most of the cultivable land is situated. The autumn
rains in the mountains, which occur late in July or early in August,
sometimes send down a little stream, which, however, generally lasts
but a few days and fails to reach the mouth of the canyon. Late in
October, or early in November, a small amount comes down and is
fairly permanent through the winter and spring. The stream bed is even
more tortuous than the canyon it occupies, often washing the cliffs on
one side, then passing directly across the bottom and returning again to
the same side, the stream bed being many times wider than the stream,
which constantly shifts its channel. In December it becomes very cold
and so much of the stream is in shade during a large part of the day that
much of the water becomes frozen and, as it were, held in place. In the
warm parts of the day, and in the sunshine, the ice is melted, the stream
resumes its flow,