3S THE SERI INDIANS [eth.ann.17 



haunt the more luxuriant vegetation of fog zones, permanent waters, 

 and cienegas. On tbe whole, the land fauna of Seriland is much like 

 that of the province in general, though the various forms of life are less 

 abundant than the average, since all (except the abounding S(juirrel) 

 are souglit for food by the omnivorous Seri; and the distribution, even 

 when relatively abundant, is woefully s])arse, as beflts the scant and 

 scattered vegetal foundation for the animal life. 



Strongly contrasted with the meagerness of the land fauna is the 

 redundant aquatic fauna of that portion of the gulf washing the shores 

 of Seriland. Tiburon island is named from the sharks, said by some 

 explorers to have been seen by thousands along its coasts; these 

 voracious feeders find amjjle food in literal shoals and swarms of smaller 

 fishes; a not inconsiderable number of whales have survived the early 

 fisheries (one, estimated at 80 feet in length, was stranded in Kada 

 Ballena about 1887) ; while schools of poi'poises play about Boca Infierno 

 and elsewhere, making easy prey of slower swimmers caught in the 

 tide-rips and galeswci)t breakers. Proportionately abundant and varied 

 is the crustacean life; littoral mollusks cling to the ledges exposed along 

 all the rocky coast stretches, and the entire beach from Punta Autigualla 

 to Punta Ygnacio is banded by a practically continuous bank of wave- 

 cast niolluscan shells, the shell-drift being often yards in width and 

 many inches in depth. Common crabs abound in many of the coves, 

 and a largo lobster-like crab frequently comes up from deeper bights and 

 bottoms; oysters attach themselves to rocks and to the roots of shrubby 

 trees skirting protected bays like Itada Ballena, while clams are numer- 

 ous in all broad mud-flats, such as those of Laguua la Cruz; and the 

 pearl oyster was fished for centuries toward Punta Tepopa, until the 

 ferocity of the Seri put an end to the industry. Especially abundant 

 and large are the green turtles on which the Seri chiefly subsist, leaving 

 the shells scattered along the shore and about rancherias in hundreds; 

 while two land tortoises [Gopherns agasshii and Cinosfernum sonoreme) 

 range about the margins of the lagoons, and one of these is alleged to 

 enter the water freely. 



The abundance of water-fowl is commensurate with that of the subma- 

 rine life. The pelican leads the avifauna in prominence if not in actual 

 numbers, breeding on Isla Tassne (Pelican island), and periodically 

 patrolling the whole of Bahia Kunkaak and VA Intiernillo in lines and 

 platoons of military regularity; gulls are always in sight, and the cor- 

 morant is common ; while different ducks haunt several of tlie islets, and 

 the shores are promenaded by curlews, snipes, and other waders. There 

 is a corresponding wealth of plankton, which at low spring tide with 

 ottshore gale covers acres of shallow littoral with squirming or inert 

 but always slimy life, the substratum for that of higher order; and 

 jellyfish and echinoids are cast up by nearly every wave, while at night 

 the surf rolls up the smooth strands in shimmering lines of phosphor- 

 escent light. On the whole, the aquatic life teems in tropic luxuriance 



