ere was, at an
early day, plainly to be seen, the foundation of a large, rectangular
building. The walls were built of stone laid in clay.

At Canoas, in the northern part of the State, there is a steep and
strongly fortified bill, but particulars in regard to it are very
meager. "There are, in all, forty-five defensive works on the hill,
including a wall about forty feet in height, and a rectangular platform
with an area of five thousand square feet."<20> Ranas, the most
northern one of the three sites mentioned, is regarded as the center
of population in early times. "A small lake and a perennial spring are
supposed to have been the attractions of this locality in the eyes of
the people. On all the hills about are still seen vestiges of their
monuments."

If we look at the map we will notice that we have gone but a little
ways north of the valley of Anahuac. Yet, with the exception of the
Gulf-coast, there are but few striking aboriginal ruins in Northern
Mexico. At the time of the conquest the whole northern section was the
home of tribes not generally considered to be as far advanced as those
who lived in the section we have already described, and in regions
further south. Yet it is certainly hard to draw the line between the
culture of the two people. We are told that, these Northern tribes
though styled "dogs," and "barbarians," by the Southern tribes, were yet
"tillers of the soil, and lived under systematic forms of government,
although not apparently much given to the arts of agriculture and
sculpture."

This point is of considerable interest to us, theoretically; for it is
a question from whence came the various Nahua tribes. We would naturally
think, if they came from the North, we ought to find evidence of their
former presence in the various Northern States of Mexico. We must
remember, however, that a migrating people are not apt to leave
monuments until they reach the end of their migration. Neither has the
territory been as carefully explored as it should be. What accounts we
can obtain of the remains in this section are certainly very meager. But
one place in Sonora do ruins occur, and they have never been examined by
competent personages.<21> In Chihuahua occur ruins, evidently the works
of the same people as built the separate houses to the west of the Rio
Grande, in New Mexico.

These ruins have received the same name as those on the Rio Gila--that
is, "Casas Grandes," meaning "Great House." This