Seventh Annual Meeting, Pasadena, California, June 18-19, 1941

THE ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS Seventh Annual Meeting, Pasadena, California, June 18-19, 1941 The seventh annual meeting of the Association was held at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, on June 18 and 19, 1941, as a part of the program of the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Pacific Division, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and associated societies. Four half-day sessions for the presentation of papers were held, besides the annual dinner session, at which the address of the retiring president was delivered and the announcement of the results of the election of officers for the year 1941-1942 was made. Program, With Abstracts of Papers Presented (Papers published in full in the foregoing pages are not abstracted here.) Wednesday morning session, June 18: Chorology and Conservation. A. W. Kuchler, Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California . Abstract: The landscape is a form of symbiosis. Every constituent of it has its effect on one or more of the other constituents. The disturbance of one therefore upsets the balance of the whole. Some tropical and polar regions show remarkable resistance to interference , but most landscapes are delicately balanced. Chorology revealed the symbiotic character of life in the landscape. Conservation preserves and reconstructs it. If a suffering landscape is to be restored to its previous healthy balance, the correction of one outstanding deficiency is inadequate. It is necessary first to know as exactly as possible just what conditions prevailed prior to the disturbance. Chorology makes this investigation and thus supplies the basis for constructive conservation. The results of chorologic research are blueprints for the conservationist. Sites of Prehistoric Community Houses in the Chaco Canyon Region, New Mexico. Malcolm Bissell, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Abstract: The Chaco Canyon region in northwestern New Mexico is famous for its relics of an advanced prehistoric culture. These include the largest known community dwellings in North America, which date from the Great Pueblo period and were constructed approximately between 900 and 1100 A. D. The region formed a natural and cultural unit extending about 25 miles from east to west, but with the main center of population along an eight-mile stretch of Chaco Canyon . A study of the sites chosen for the buildings shows a remarkable lack of consideration of the element of defense. Accessibility to building materials and proximity to water supply for domestic purposes were apparently also negligible factors. Climatic considerations seem to have played a part in the avoidance of the south side of the canyon. In practically all cases, however, the buildings were located where fields could readily be irrigated by flood waters, usually from tributaries of the main stream. Some evidence of prehistoric irrigation structures has been found. These facts suggest that the climatic conditions in the Chaco Canyon region a thousand years ago were not greatly different from those that obtain today. Roads and Transport in Colonial Mexico. Robert E. West, Office of the Coordinator of Information, Washington, D. C. Abstract: In Mexico, during the 16th and 17th centuries, the conveyance of precious metals and tropical agricultural products to the port of Veracruz for export and the distribution of European imports to various parts of the country were a vital factor in Spanish colonial economy. To effect this transport, trails, which followed Indian trade routes, were extended outward in all directions from the Mesa Central. The road system consisted of (1) connections between the central plateau and the adjacent tropical lowlands, and (2) roads leading northward to the mining districts. Seven trails comprised the connections between highland and lowland: (a) the trail to the Huasteca (the area around the present Tampico) ; (b), the vital roads to the port of Veracruz; (c), the long trail southward to Oaxaca and Guatemala; (d), the road to Acapulco on the south48 I941of Pacific Coast Geographers49 western coast; (e), the Ario trail from Lake Pátzcuaro into the Balsas depression; (/), the Guadalajara-Colima trail; and (g), the road from Guadalajara to the west coast. The distribution of modern and projected routes is essentially the same as that of the routes of colonial days. Three modes of transportation were employed: (1), the Aztec tameme system—i. e., human transport; (2...