VoL. 11. | Cape Region of Baja California. 199 
Bursera microphylla, called ‘‘toréte’’ by the natives. This red- 
dish bark is cut in small pieces from the trunks and larger limbs of 
the tree and’spread on the ground to dry, and is afterwards sacked 
and exported for dyeing purposes. 
Our route from Buena Vista lay for a few miles along the beach 
and then turned inland till we entered the San Bartolomé arroyo, 
the cafion narrowed, the hills became steeper and we approached 
the beautiful hanging gardens of San Bartolo, as the place is usually 
called. Above on either side could be seen bananas growing close 
to the edges of nearly perpendicular bluffs, and orange trees loaded 
with ripe fruit. Two nights were passed in this delightful region, 
and during the day excursions up and down the arroyo brought to 
light only such birds as were to be expected in so well watered a 
locality. The antelope chipmunk and the jackass rabbit were of 
course there, as they are found pretty nearly over the entire penin- 
sula. Large lizards, ‘‘iguanas,’’ were unusually common among 
the bowlders of the arroyo, but butterflies and beetles were not as 
numerous at San Bartolomé, or any where else along the route, as 
they were at San José, and even there they became less common as 
_ the rainy season drew towards its close. 
A start late in the day obliged us to pass one night on the way to 
El Triumfo, or else arrive in a strange mining settlement in the dark; 
we chose the former and finished the pack train trip by noon. The 
men and animals were fed and dismissed; we hated to part with 
such a native treasure as Manuel, but he had a position waiting for 
him at San José to which he returned. 
After waiting for two days in the cosmopolitan settlement of El 
Triumfo, which is located on the lower range of mountains and 
denuded for miles of all wood that could be burned at the mines, 
we secured transportation in a springless freight wagon to La Paz. 
I would not have missed that experience for anything, but nothing 
could induce me to go through with it again. The route is nearly 
all down grade, in places sandy, but mainly a road that could be 
trotted over. There were six mules attached, with lines to control 
only the leaders and wheelers; when the spirits of the team seemed 
to lag an energetic boy, who travelled either with the driver or on 
the tail-board, would jump to the ground and run beside the team, 
plying his short whip and shouting maledictions to the slow ones 
till he had aroused the mules and forced them into a run which 
