This enclosed area, now covered with tufts of grama, occasional cactuses, knolls and scattered drift and pottery, was according to Sr. Ruiz, the former _huerto del pueblo_; that is, the fields of the inhabitants of the pueblo, where they planted and raised Indian corn, beans, calabashes, squash, and, after the advent of the Spaniards, also wheat, melons, and perhaps other fruit. Not a vestige of former cultivation is left; but the platform _r m s_, with a pond in the centre, at once explains their mode of securing the water for irrigation. Through the gateway _D_ the drainage of the _mesilla_ was conducted directly to the platform _r m s_, where the pond _t_ acted as a reservoir, out of which the fields themselves could be very easily and equitably supplied with moisture. Whether this was done by channels radiating from below the curve _r s_ over the area _F_, or by carrying the water, I cannot tell, neither my informants nor the appearance of the area giving any clew. But I could not escape being forcibly struck by this plain and still very forcible illustration of communal living. Not only did the Pecos Indians live together, and build their houses together, but they raised their crops in one common field (though divided into individual or rather family plots, according to Ruiz), irrigated from one common water source which gathered its contents of moisture from the inhabited surface of the pueblo grounds. "The lands," said Mariano Ruiz, "belong to the tribe, but each man can sell his own crops." ("Las tierras son del pueblo, pero cada uno puede vender sus cosechas.") It forcibly recalls the system of "distribution and tenure of lands" among the ancient Mexicans. I now cross the Arroyo de Pecos, and on its western bank, in the triangle formed by the creek with the military road to Santa Fé, nearly opposite the site of the old church, I met with a ruined enclosure and with remains of structures whose purposes are yet unexplained to me. The distance from _M_ to the arroyo is 40 m.--130 ft. Its E. line is 75 m.--246 ft.,--the S. line 70 m.--230 ft.,--the W., up to where the curve begins, 55 m.--180 ft. The distance from _M_ to _N_ is 15 m.--50 ft. At the north end of _N_ is a mound of stone and _débris_, like a conical tower, 5 m.--16 ft.--in diameter; the other lines are distinct foundations only. Both _M_ and _N_ are scattered over with broken pottery, chips of obsidian and flint, and I also found a fragment of a stone implement. Mariano Ruiz told me that the enclosure _M_ was the corral of the pueblo; that is, the enclosure where they kept whatever herds they possessed. It was at all events but an enclosure, and no building. Still, why were their herds, their most valuable property, kept on the opposite side of the creek, so far from the dwellings themselves?