1915.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 323 



MOLLUSCA OF THE SOUTHWESTERN STATES, VI: THE HACHETA GRANDE, 

 FLORIDA, AND PELONCILLO MOUNTAINS, NEW MEXICO. 



BY HENRY A. PILSBRY. 



I. The Big Hachet Mountains. 



The Big Hachet (or Hacheta Grande) Mountains are a short 

 range in southern New Mexico in sight of the Mexican boundary. 



They may be reached from the station of Hachita, on the El Paso 

 and Southwestern R. R., where provisions can be obtained. Water 

 must be hauled in, unless the prospecting in progress at the time of 

 our visit resulted in a successful well. There are no trails in the 

 mountains. The extreme northern end of the range remains to be 

 worked conchologically, as we could not reach it from our camp. 

 A visit should be planned much earlier or later than ours (August), 

 in order to have the advantage of what rain there is and also to 

 avoid the excessive heat. 



The highest peak, Hacheta Grande, has an elevation of about 

 8,500 ft., and is considerably higher than any other in the group. 

 Several large canyons dissect the range, two of them forming broad 

 basins. 



There are no springs in the range, but sometimes after the infre- 

 quent rains a little water remains for a time in rocky basins in narrow 

 canyons. We found one such hole containing about half a barrel. 

 It was foul with drowned insects, yet most welcome, as our canteens 

 were dry, towards the end of a two-day trip to Big Hachet Mountain. 



The colonies of snails here as in other desert mountains are usually 

 of small area. As the mountains are uninhabited and too dry for 

 cattle ranges, there are few local place names and no roads or ranches 

 to aid in locating collecting points. In the absence of any topo- 

 graphic map, we reproduce a rough map made from our field notes, which 

 should enable anyone to exactly locate nearly every colony of snails 

 found. For convenient reference we have named several promi- 

 nent landmarks, such as Daniels Mountain, ^ the highest peak north- 

 ward as seen from Sheridan Canyon, and Teocalli Butte, west of our 

 camp, both being inhabited by special races of snails. 



1 Named for the writer's coropanion on this somewhat arduous trip. 



