1897.] NEW YOKK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 177 



central ridge where water from the melting snows accumulates. 

 To go up that far is not difficult, and we kept pushing on, 

 though my guide was a little alarmed by the fact that all the 

 Indians had disappeared, leaving only their empty houses behind 

 them. This is the means by which they make it known that a 

 stranger is not welcome; he can stay till he grows tired of it, 

 hut the Indians will never return till he has gone. Sometimes 

 they are very hospitable, but this depends on a kind of a divina- 

 tion practiced by the Mamas or Medicine men, who use black 

 and white pebbles and throw them from a gourd like dice. By 

 this the^^ tell whether an approaching stranger is good or bad. 

 Unfortunately I came out bad, and saw very little of the Indians. 

 We stopped one night at San Miguel, making use of the empty 

 houses and the next day pushed on to Macatama Ariba, a single 

 house the highest habitation in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 



The place was deserted and so we took possession. We were 

 now well up among the higher ranges just below the snow line 

 and it was cold. The rocks continued about the same, granite 

 predominating, and there was more float material with angular 

 gravel in some places. Across the narrow valley which was 

 now little more than a mountain gorge, there was a regular band 

 of well-worn gravel that could be distinctly seen about 150 to 

 200 feet above the present river. It evidently marked an old 

 channel showing that the river has cut its way down to the 

 present level through masses of hard rock, and indicates a long 

 period of erosion. The next day I continued my explorations, 

 pushing on toward the top of the range. 



At one place I noticed red clay, probably of residual formation, 

 and everywhere there were masses of granite. At the head of 

 the river there was a curious knob of granite almost like a pyra- 

 mid with a dome shaped top. It was a small mountain in itself 

 and seemed to bar all further progress with its almost perpen- 

 dicular sides. On reaching it I found that a vvay could be made 

 around one side and, amid protests from my guide, I pushed on. 

 Presently we passed it and came to a mass of broken rock at the 

 foot of a small ledge. Here my guide sat down saying decidedly, 

 " Senor, we go no further." I made angry protests, but he 

 would not move, declaring that we were above the highest point 

 ever reached by man, that it was the parama, all bare rocks and 

 unknown places, to lose the way was death. He could take me 

 even higher at other places where trails had been make, but here 

 everything was unknown, he would go no further. 



A dense white fog was slowly accumulating in the mountains 

 below, a fog on the parama is really dangerous and I hesitated. 



Transactions N. Y. Acad. Sci., Vol. XVI., Big. 12, April 27, 1897. 



