Across the Mexican Mountains 137 



August 14th. We have had the same sort of 

 travelling today; we came to the Yaqui River, a 

 muddy stream at this season, about two hundred 

 yards wide and so deep that we had to employ 

 canoes to carry over our cargoes; the canoes are 

 paddled by Mexicans (no great boatmen, by the 

 way) ; the mules and horses we swam over, having 

 passed Tomochi [Tonichi] ; the little town is said 

 to be four days' travel from Ures; it is about three 

 quarters of a mile from the river, and it is a 

 deserted mining place of a few adobe houses. 

 Here, as usual, was sold muscalle, a few freholes 

 [frejoles]^ and wheaten tortillas. Only once have 

 I seen pulque, at a small distillery of muscalle. 



August I ^th. Soyopa. Leaving the Rio Yaqui 

 for its little tributaries, which are sometimes above 

 ground, and sometimes below, running over the 

 sands, or disappearing underneath them, we 

 encamped in a quiet cool spot, to rest after the 

 great heat of the sunny sides of the hills we had 

 left and the arroyos made by mountain torrents 

 where we were nearly suffocated, and we look 

 forward to the plains of the Gulf of California and 

 the sea breeze that sweeps them, with anticipations 

 of delight. Alas! an occasional thunderstorm is all 

 that gives coolness to the atmosphere here, for the 

 puffs of land breeze only tantalize and do not cool. 



I tried here to buy or trade horses, and regret I 



^ Frejoles ox frijoles^ Spanish for beans. 



