RUSSELL] THE FOOD SUPPLY 83 



Vatop. There are occasional references to fish in the traditions of 

 the Pimas and the notes of Spanish and American travelers sometimes 

 mention them. It is certain that at times they caught large num- 

 bers of fish, but in seasons of drought the river, then as now, becomiiig 

 wholly dry near the villages, could not be relied upon to furnish 

 such a convenient supply of food. Either the long series of dry 

 years and the absence of fish have caused the peojile to forget former 

 classifications or else they never distinguished one species from 

 another, for they now have but one name for all fresli fish. How- 

 ever, there were several species in the Gila and adjoining streams that 

 were large enough for food." 



Wh'ai, Odocoileus hemionus (subspecies?). Information concern- 

 ing this species was very vague ami unreliable, though it seems cer- 

 tain that the black-tail deer was sometimes killed by the Pimas, at 

 least before the growing power of the Apaches prevented the former 

 from roaming through the mountams that border Pimeria on the 

 north and east. 



Wo'poldo, Equus asinus.'' The burro (donkey) is not in liigh repute 

 among the Pimas, where the distances to the wliite settlements and 

 between villages necessitate a more speedy animal for draft or riding 

 purposes. Few in number, they could not be very important as an 

 article of diet. They have been eaten in the past, but are rarely so 

 used at present. 



Snakes are not eaten, even in times of famine, and the idea of eating 

 lizards is repudiated with scorn. 



<• Oarers, who traversed the Pima country in 1775, wrote: "There is foond in this river no other 

 fish than that which they call matalo'te, which is so very savory to the taste, but is troublesome on 

 account of the many bones that it has." (On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, n, 142.) Jordan says: 

 "Garc(''s's remarks settle the matalo'te. There art no large fish in the Gila except the two large, bony 

 chubs called, by Baird and Girard, Gila robusta and Gila elegans. In the very mouth of the river 

 there is also a big, rawboned sucker of the same build, called Xyrauchen c>T>ho, the Razor-back or 

 Hump-back Sucker. The Oija is a hump-back chub, about a foot and a half long, with a low, large 

 mouth and a long, broad tail. It is popularly known as Bony-tail, Gila Trout, and Round-tail, and 

 is about as poor eating as a fish can be." The Land of Sunshine, xiii, 43fi. 



In The Fishes of the Colorado Basin, Evermann and Rutter enumerate several species that must 

 have been accessible to the Pimas. Their names and the localities where they were collected are as 

 follows; 



Pantosteus arizona; Gilbert. Salt river, Tempe. 



Pantosteus clarkii (Baird and Girard). Gila river. Fort Thomas. 



Catostomus latipinnis (Baird and Girard). Rio San Pedro and Fort Thomas. 



Catostomus gila Kirsch. Fort Thomas. 



Catostomus insignis Baird and (Jirard. Rio San Pedro and Fort Thomas. 



Xyrauchen cjTJho (Locklngton). Mouth of Gila and Fort Thomas. 



Ptychocheilus lucius Girard. Various stations on the Gila. Called Gila trout by Emory in 1M8. 



Gila elegans Baird and Girard. Taken from several places along the Gila by coUex-tors. 



Gila robusta Baird and Girard. Also described from several (Jila stations under various names. 



Cj'prinodon raacularius Baird and Girard. '• Rio Gila." 



In addition to these may be included the species collected in the San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers, 

 which are both tributaries of the Gila above Pimeria and within reach of Pima hunting parties: I.,eu- 

 ciscus niger (Cope), Tiaroga cobitis Girard, .\goaia oscula (Girard), .\gosia chrysogaster Girard, and 

 Meda fulgida Girard. 



'' It is unci'rtain whether the burro of the Southwest is a descendant of the .Vsiatic species of wild 

 asses, Equus hemionus, E. hcniihippus, and E. onager, or of the .\frican, E. africanus and E. soniaticus. 



