ruins. However, Mr.
Bandelier says, the existence of ancient villages in that section
is certain, and that from "Sinaloa there are ample evidences of a
continuous flow Southward."<24> There are no ruins worth mentioning in
any of the other States, excepting Zacatecas, where we find a ruin of
great interest. This is at Quemada, in the southern part of the State.
The name is taken from that of a farm in the near neighborhood. The
ruins are situated on the top of a hill, which is not only naturally
strong, but the approaches to it are fortified. The hill ascends from
the plain in a gentle slope for several hundred yards, it then rises
quite precipitously for about a hundred and fifty feet. The total height
of the hill above the plain is probably not far from eight hundred
feet.<25>

At all points where the approach to the top of the hill is not steep
enough to form a protection of itself, the brow is guarded by walls
of stone. This is especially true of the northern end of the hill. One
peculiar feature of this place is the traces of ancient roads, which can
still be clearly distinguished crossing each other at various angles
on the slope we have mentioned. They can be followed for miles, and
are described as being slightly raised and paved with rough stones. In
places on the slope, their sides are protected by embankments.

Considerable speculations have been indulged in as to the purposes for
which these roads were used. It has been suggested that they were the
streets of an ancient city which must once have existed on the plains;
and that the fortified hill, with the ruins on its summit, was the
citadel, the residence of their rulers, and the location of their
temples. But we think a more reasonable view is that all of the city
that ever stood in that neighborhood was on the hill summit, and that
these streets were for religious purposes, reminding us in this respect
of the graded ways and traces of paved streets sometimes met with in the
Mississippi Valley. In proof of this view, it is said that many of them,
after being followed for a long distance, are found to terminate in a
heap of stones, which are evidently the ruins of a regular pyramid.
In opposition to both of these views, it has been suggested that the
surrounding plain was low and marshy, and that the object of these
causeways was to secure a dry passage, which explanation is certainly
very reasonable.

Illustration of Quemada.----------

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