GENERAL DESCRIPTION OP THE TRES MARIAS ISLANDS. 9 



The amount of land suitable for agriculture upon the islands is very 

 limited and forms but a small percentage of the total area. A few 

 cattle are raised on Maria Madre, but the scanty herbage and great 

 scarcity of water during the long dry season limit this industry to the 

 most insignificant proportions. There is a small field near the settle- 

 ment, where coarse grass is grown for stock. Attempts have been 

 made to grow corn and beans to supply the residents, but the fierce 

 summer storms of wind and rain, called 'chubascos,' which beat the 

 crops to the ground, have rendered these eflbrts futile. At present 

 all food supplies are brought from the mainland. A number of years 

 ago a house was built and a field cleared and fenced near the north 

 end of the island for the purpose of growing cotton. A warehouse 

 was also built at the main settlement, but after a trial the owner was 

 forced to abandon the industry, the field and house were deserted, and 

 the i)lace is now overgrown with bushes. Subsequently it was proposed 

 to utilize the agaves, which grow abundantly near the north end of the 

 island, for fiber and for distilling from their fleshy bases the alcoholic 

 product known as 'mescal.' Machinery was obtained, but the owner 

 died before the industry was exploited. 



In winter the weather is dry and pleasant, and small coasting steam- 

 ers stop every now and then to take on wood for fuel, and sailing- 

 vessels call for Spanish cedar or, in spring, for salt. In May the 

 inhabitants are obliged to lay in a stock of provisions sufficient for 

 several months, as they are ijractically cut off from communication 

 with the mainland during summer, when the islands are avoided on 

 account of the storms that sweep over them. Many objects drift out 

 from the Gulf of California after storms and are cast up on the shores. 

 In September, 1890, a great tornado of wind and rain swejjt over 

 northern Sinaloa and the Gulf of California; the coast lowlands were 

 devastated by the flooded rivers, aiid crops and forests were alike 

 overwhelmed and swept to sea. In May, 1897, the shore of Maria 

 Madre was still strewn with cornstalks, driftwood, and other wreckage 

 that had been stranded after this storm. 



Our obligations to the collector of customs at San Bias and his agent 

 on Maria Madre have already been mentioned, and acknowledgments 

 are due also to the owner of the islands, SeDora Gil de Azcona, whose 

 letter procured us the use of horses and other courtesies. 



PHYSIOGRAPHY. 



The Tres Marias are situated between latitude 21° and 22° and 

 longitude 100° and 107° (see frontispiece). Between the islands and 

 the mainland, 20 miles offshore, lies Isabel Island, only about a mile 

 long and 150 feet high. The soundings in the channel between the 

 mainland and the islands gradually deepen to less than 300 fathoms, 

 but just west of the group the sea bottom drops rapidly to more than 

 1,500 fathoms. The absence of a deep channel shows that they are 

 continental islands, as distinguished from the oceanic Eevillagigedo 

 group, farther west. 



