Through the Giant Cactus Forest 109 



huge cacti from a trail, a man may become so 

 bewildered that it would be an easy matter to 

 wander off indefinitely. Every hundred yards 

 is often a replica of the next; the tall columnar 

 shapes of saguaro and hecho cutting out the 

 distant mountains and landmarks; a complete 

 and marvellous maze, whose charms of color and 

 shape seem to lure one on and on. 



The delta of the Eio Yaqui, which has, until 

 within comparatively a few months, been a terra 

 incognita, extends from the Bacatete Mountains 

 on the north, the old stronghold of the Broncho 

 Yaqui, of which Mounts Coracipe, Pocacho, and 

 Mebelabampo are conspicuous peaks, to the Rio 

 Mayo on the south, with the peaks of Tebaree, 

 Sombrerete, Zapeboa, and Osocahui to the east, 

 while to the west, it gradually stretches away 

 with an almost perfect level, sloping possibly 

 three feet to the mile, for sixty miles to 

 the Gulf of California at Lobos and Tobari 

 bays. 



Over this rich delta hundreds of expeditions 

 have passed in the last thousand years, migra- 

 tory bands, the ancestors of the Pueblos, and 

 others, and in the sixteenth century began the 

 Spanish invasion of what is now New Mexico 

 and Arizona; the search for the so-called seven 

 cities. Among the first, was that of Nuno Guz- 

 man, who while Cortez was in Spain organized 

 an expedition. 



