secrets to
science, it at least appeals to the spirit of romance and mystery.

Irrigating ditches which were fed from reservoirs supplied their fields
and houses with water. Portions of these old canals are yet in
existence and furnish proof of the diligence and skill of their
builders. The ditches were located on levels that could not be
improved upon for utilizing the land and water to the best advantage.
Modern engineers have not been able to better them and in many places
the old levels are used in new ditches at the present time.

Whatever may have been the fate of this ancient people their
destruction must be sought in natural causes rather than by human
warfare. An adverse fate probably cut off their water supply and laid
waste their productive fields. With their crops a failure and all
supplies gone what else could the people do but either starve or move,
but as to the nature of the exodus history is silent.

Just how ancient these works are might be difficult to prove, but they
are certainly not modern. The evidence denotes that they have existed
a long time. Where the water in a canal flowed over solid rock the
rock has been much worn. Portions of the old ditches are filled with
lava and houses lie buried in the vitreous flood. It is certain that
the country was inhabited prior to the last lava flow whether that
event occurred hundreds or thousands of years ago.

It is claimed that the Pueblo Indians and cliff dwellers are identical
and that the latter were driven from their peaceful valley homes by a
hostile foe to find temporary shelter among the rocks, but such a
conclusion seems to be erroneous in view of certain facts.

The cliff dwellings were not temporary camps, as such a migration would
imply, but places of permanent abode. The houses are too numerous and
well constructed to be accounted for on any other hypothesis. A people
fleeing periodically to the cliffs to escape from an enemy could not
have built such houses. Indeed, they are simply marvelous when
considered as to location and construction. The time that must
necessarily have been consumed in doing the work and the amount of
danger and labor involved--labor in preparing and getting the material
into place and danger in scaling the dizzy heights over an almost
impassible trail, it seems the boldest assumption to assert that the
work was done by a fleeing and demoralized mob.

Again, it would be a physical impossibility for a p