File:New trails in Mexico; an account of one year's exploration in north-western Sonora, Mexico, and south-western Arizona, 1909-1910 (1912) (14577910579).jpg

Identifier: newtrailsinmexic00lumh (find matches)
Title: New trails in Mexico; an account of one year's exploration in north-western Sonora, Mexico, and south-western Arizona, 1909-1910
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Lumholtz, Carl, 1851-1922
Subjects: Tohono O'Odham Indians
Publisher: New York, Scribner
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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e called Trincheras, which I was desirous of visitingon account of its remarkable ancient structures. Forthree or four hours we were crossing a large, low mesawith a predominant vegetation of palo fierro trees, theleaves of which furnish here the sole means of subsistencefor herds of cattle. They grow fat on this, drinkingwater only every third day. Trincheras derives its name from the trenches, asthe Mexicans call them, which cover one side of a longmountain, at the base of which the village lies on a fer-tile plain. There is much water under the sandy plainand a steam pump has been erected which sends it four-teen miles west to El Boludo gold mine. The ancientworks which I, for convenience, shall call fortifications,run as walls along the north side of the mountain, parallelto each other and seemingly at the same distance apartthough of different lengths. They presented an extraor-dinary sight, made more impressive by the afternoonsun, which, by its accompanying shadows, brought the
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NOTABLE ANCIENT STRUCTURES 141 stone walls into strong relief. I counted twenty of them,one above the other. Roughly speaking, they occupied aheight of about four hundred feet measured from baseto top, some of them attaining a length of two thousandfeet. After sunset hundreds of turkey vultures circledover the tops of the mountain, and finally settled downfor the night on the uppermost rocks. The mountain runs in an easterly and westerly direc-tion and has four tops, the highest rising over five hun-dred feet above the plain; the western is the lowest,being hardly four hundred feet. The fortifications arefound mainly in the middle region of the slope. Theyare somewhat narrow terraces, built of andesitic lava,their front presenting fairly well-laid walls rising to theheight of a man or even higher. The four or five thatare lowest down on the slope are almost on level ground,while the highest, which are very short, climb to the top;usually, however, the slopes immediately below the tops

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