988 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



bears the date of 1784 aud the other 1800. A few miles up the river 

 we saw in the distance ruins of an extensive series of buildings once 

 forming a part of the mission, but now given over to silence and the 

 basking lizard. In exploring these ruins aud still others at San Fer- 

 nando, one could not but be impressed with the fact that, objectionable 

 as may have been the system from a purely political standpoint, as a 

 means of bettering the immediate condition of the people it was cer- 

 tainly preferable to anything since inaugurated. In the place of the 

 thriving villages of no mean size which here and there dotted the land 

 wherever was suflicient water for irrigation, of well-kept adobe houses 

 aud churches, vineyards, orchards of figs and peaches, of gardens and 

 fields of grain, are now scattering huts in midst of ill-kept gardens or 

 barren plains. Shiftlessness, squalor, desolation, and barrenness now 

 reign supreme, where once was thrift and apparent prosperity. 



The buildings at El Kosario are, I believe, without exception, of 

 adobe — one-story affairs with thick walls and roofs of poles thatched 

 with straw or i^alm leaves, and with floors of stone or hard-trodden 

 dirt. The schoolroom of the village was built of poles standing against 

 the side of one of the adobe houses, and rudely interwoven with sugar 

 cane. In this I found a dozen or so little bright-eyed Mexicans under 

 the instruction of a male teacher whose years must have numbered at 

 least 60. During school hours each scholar studies aloud, and the con- 

 fusion produced can be imagined. Now one voice in its jabbering 

 monotone would prevail; and now another, now louder, now softer, 

 rising and falling in irregular cadences such as would shortly render 

 an Eastern teacher insane, but in the midst of all of which the Mexican 

 conducts his recitations and administers his punishments, corporeal and 

 otherwise, with a calmness and indifference that led me at times to 

 doubt his i)ower of hearing at all. All about the houses is dirt and 

 sand; no lawns, walks, or roadways. In the yard, inclosed by adobe 

 walls aud thorny poles of the fouquiera, were stretched lines, on 

 which are drying long strips of meat. On the flat below ran the irri- 

 gating ditches, where women were washing clothes, and which are 

 bordered with fine large fig trees full of ripe, purple fruit, aud beyond 

 which are peach orchards aud gardens. 



Shortly after noon of the 21st our outfit was declared ready and we 

 mount and start, said outfit consisting of three horses, two mules, and 

 one burro for saddle purposes, and two pack mules to carry provisions 

 and camp utensils. The first 10 miles of our course lay due north up 

 the Rosario Valley, the river bed becoming shortly little else than a 

 dry ravine, with here and there an adobe house with the usual type of 

 occupants. 



At the end of perhaps 10 miles we turned to the east up a lateral 

 canyon or arroyo toward the mountain range, at the foot of which, by 

 the side of a diminutive muddy spring, we made our camp. The stream, 

 now dry, here enters a deep, steep- walled canyon, cut in granitic dio- 



