,.>' 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY NO- li 83 



ally they had fallen out of my, pocket as I went through the brush; 



From Hermosillo I took the' train for Guaymas, some 70 miles off. 

 We were escorted by the usual guard of three car loads of soldiers. 

 Guaymas is a fine city on a landlocked bay, which is large enough for a 

 great naval base, and is surrounded by volcanic hills at least 2,000 feet 

 high. Since my object was to get over on to the peninsula as soon as 

 ip'ossible, my stay was governed by the time the next steamer went to 

 Santa Rosalia, which was the next week. This gave me a few days to 

 collect in this rich botanical region, and which had been visited by many 



botanists before my time and therefore w^as the type locality for many 

 new species. 



A peculiarity of all Mexican ports is the stevedores, a guild of loaf- 

 ers, who insist that all steamers shall load and unload by boat even if 

 there is a wharf to which they can tie up. So after I had bought my 

 ticket I could not go on the boat while it was at the wliarf, but had to 

 wait till it got in the stream and then hire a boatman to take me and my 

 baggage to the boat. The boat w^as the Dorado, a tub of an affair, that 

 as soon as it got into the open sea pitched and rolled and shipped water 

 beautifully, an ideal seasick concern. Then there was no stateroom or 

 bunk, and you had to roll up in your blankets and sleep on th^e dtck or 

 sit up on the benches. Then tliere was no eating system, but }X)u took 

 what the crew got or went without, and what the crew got was a mulligan 

 made out of potatoes, strong onions, carrots or the like and squares of 

 jerked betf, so hard that you had to eat with a sledge hammer; then 

 there were tortillas, frijoles, and vile coffee made out of burnt coffee, and 

 no milk. This was the menu three times a day, and every day. If there 

 vvas any mulligan left over I suppose it was wanned up the next day. It 

 was a treat one day to have some dates ppill out of a sack, and have 

 them passed around by v.^ay of dessert. Then an added pleasure ( ?) \vas 

 the water that the. boat shipped every now^ and then when a particularly 

 obstreperous wave insisted in coming over. Then the floor was awash 

 with four inches of water. The next n-iorning v/e reached Santa Rosalia, 

 a. capper mining camp and smelter, presided over by Frenchmen who could 

 not talk English. We stayed here all day, and I too^ advantage of the 

 time to' go ashore and botanize. There is' no hurry among the Mexicans, 

 and if there is no cargo to unload or load they loaf just the same, prob- 

 ably to let the machinery rest after the strenuous trip acro:^s tbe Gulf- 

 As night began to fall we slipped out of the artificial harbor and rolkd 

 oil our way to Mulcje. Arriving there the next morning we rounded a 

 rocky point and into a tiny hay, which was what was left of a little 

 stream that flowed out of Conception Bay and on which the town of 

 Mueje w^as located, a fev/ miles above and out of sight of the boat. Here 

 we also loafed all dav. Then at night we pulled anchor and were soon 

 rolling along in the open sea. The next morning we reached the offing, a 

 steep and sandy beach where long log beats are the only means of getting 

 ashore, and where they land for the city of Loreto, which lies back a mile 

 or so among the cocoanut palms and dates and sugar cane. This used to 

 be^ the capitol of the s^ate of Lower California, but it aprov'ed Id he mors 



