Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/245



of the most difficult problems in the study of the American races is the origin and history of the civilised people in the northern coast valleys of Peru. Here we find ruins of vast extent with evidence of artistic skill and somewhat florid taste, systems of irrigation on a gigantic scale and planned with marvellous skill, every square foot of ground carefully cultivated. Writing of the Chira to the north, Mr. Spruce says that there are ancient aqueducts all the way down the valley from near its source. Water is conducted across ravines and along the faces of steep declivities. There was also provision for collecting rain water in the años de aguas by canals along the base of the Mancora hills and cliffs of the valleys, and for storing it in reservoirs made by throwing strong dikes across the outlets of ravines. The whole valley was then under cultivation with a dense population, proved by the middings sometimes miles in extent, strewn with fragments of shells and pottery. The richly embossed walls, the gold and silver work, the astonishing versatility in the