Plate XXXVII. Old Ditch Near Verde, Looking Eastward.
The bank of the river at this point consists of a low sandy beach, from 10 to 50 feet wide, limited on the south by a vertical bluff 10 to 12 feet high and composed of sandy alluvial soil. This bluff is the edge of the bottom land before referred to, and on top is almost flat and covered with a growth of mesquite, some of the trees reaching a diameter of more than 3 inches. The American ditch, which is shown on the map, runs along the top of the bluff skirting its edge, and is about 14 feet above the river at its ordinary stage. The edge of the bluff is shown on the map by a heavy black line. It will be observed that the ancient ditch occurs on the lower flat, about 3 feet above the river at its ordinary stage, and its remains extend over nearly 500 feet. The line, however, is not a straight one, but has several decided bends. One of these occurs at a point just west of that shown in the section. About 80 feet east of that point the ditch makes another turn southward, and about 40 feet beyond strikes the face of the bluff almost at right angles and passes under it.
Fig. 300.—Part of old irrigating ditch.
About 50 feet north of the main ditch, at the point where it passes under the bluff, there are the remains of another ditch, as shown on the map. This second ditch was about a foot higher than the main structure, or about 4 feet above the river; it runs nearly parallel with it for 30 feet and then passes into the bluff with a slight turn toward the north. It is about the same size as the main ditch, but its section is more evenly rounded. Figure 300 shows this ditch in section.
As already stated, the American ditch is about 14 feet above the river, while the ancient ditch is less than 4 feet above the water. This decided difference in level indicates a marked difference in the character of the river. The destruction of the modern ditch by the flood of
1891 is not the first mishap of that kind which has befallen the settlers. The ditch immediately preceding the current one passed nearly over the center of the ancient ditch, then covered by 10 feet or more of alluvial soil, and if a ditch were placed today on the level of the ancient structure it would certainly be destroyed every spring. The water that flowed through the modern ditch was taken from the river at a point about 3 miles farther northward, or just below Verde. The water for the ancient ditch must have been taken out less than a mile above the southern end of the section shown in the map.
At first sight it would appear that the ancient ditch antedated the deposit of alluvial soil forming the bottom land at this point, and this hypothesis is supported by several facts of importance. It is said that ten years ago the bottom land, whose edge now forms the bluff referred to, extended some 25 or 30 feet farther out, and that the river then flowed in a channel some 200 or 300 feet north of the present one. Be this as it may, the bottom land now presents a fairly continuous surface, from the banks of the river to the foothills that limit the valley on the west and south, and it is certain that this bottom land extended over the place occupied by the ancient ditch; nor is it to be supposed that the ancient ditches ended abruptly at the point where they now enter the bluff. The curves in the line of the ancient ditch might indicate that it was constructed along the slope of a hill, or on an uneven