McoEEl STORMY SEAS OF SERILAND 45 



also a center for radiating trails, the best-beaten of these leading toward 

 the fresh waters of Tinaja Anita and Arroyo Carrizal; and even the 

 rancherias halfway thence to J'unta Mashcni send their most peiina- 

 nent paths over 15 miles of intervening ranges and spall strewn valleys 

 toward the same waters. According to JIashem's cautious statements, 

 there is a minor Heri metropolis at the northwestern spur of Sierra 

 Kunkaak, within reach of I'ozo Hardy and Arroyo Agua Dulce, and 

 two or three smaller rancherias along the western shore; but these were 

 not reached by the 1895 expedition. 



4. The seas washing Seriland are notably troubled by tides and 

 winds. Gaping toward the Pacific, and narrowing and shoaling for the 

 800 miles of its length (measured from midway between Islas de Tres 

 Marias and Cabo San Lucas), Gulf of California api)r()aches Bay of 

 Fundy, Bristol channel, and llroad sound as a tide accumulator; while 

 the semidiurnal sweep of the waters in the upper half of the gulf is 

 conditioned by the constriction of the basin to a fraction of its average 

 cross-section at the narrows between Isla Tiburon and Punta San 

 Francisquito. Toward the head of the gulf the ordinary spring tides 

 range from 20 to 25 feet, and may be much increased by favoring 

 winds; the debacles culminate there, but the currents culminate off 

 Seriland in the great tide-gate half dammed by the islands of Tiburon, 

 San Esteban, San Lorenzo, and Salsipuedes,' with their marine but- 

 tresses, and through the breaches of Pasaje Ulloa, Estrecho Alar- 

 con, ancl Canal de Salsipuedes How, four times daily, some two or three 

 cubic miles of water in tremendous tidal floods, probably unsurpassed 

 in vigor elsewhere on the globe. Naturally the islands and the adjacent 

 coasts aflord extraordinary examples of marine transgression; and 

 while exceptional wave-work is a factor, the transgression is undoubt- 

 edly due mainly to the extraordinary tidal currents in this gateway of 

 the gulf. The fierce currents and the fre(]uent storms of the region 

 condition local navigation, and have undoubtedly contributed to the 

 development of the peculiarly light, strong, and serviceable water-craft 

 of the aboriginal navigators among the islands. 



El Intiernillo derives its distinctive characteristics largely from the 

 local character of the tides. Bahia Kunkaak is a funnel-shape embay- 

 ment so placed as to catch half the volume of the incoming tide and to 



' OrigiUciUy the name Islas Sal-si-puedes (Get-out-ii'-canst) was applieil to the various islands of this 

 gateway of the gulf, including San Lorenzo, San Esteban, and San Agustin (now Tiburon), together 

 with tlie smaller islets, as shown in the map of Padre Fernando Consag (in Noticia de la California y 

 de su Contjuista, etc., i)or el Padre Miguel Venegas, 1757, tonio ill, p. 194) ; and Padre Consag's account 

 of the currents encountered in 1746 explains the designation : "The great sea whicli runs here even in 

 iair weather would not allow us to stay, and it was witli great diflicnltj- we took in a little water. We 

 now attempted to weather the Cape of San (Jaliriel de Sal-si-puedes, so greatly dreaded Ijy seamen on 

 account of those islands, several contiguous points of land an<l niany ledges of sunken rocks extend- 

 ing a great way from the land. Here the sea is so agitated by th<- current that a gale or a calm makes 

 but little difterencc" (Englisli translation of Venegas' Noticia, titled A Natural and Civil History of 

 California, 1759, vol. ll, pp. 31*3-;J13). Hittell sjieaks of *' the grou]) of islands known as Salsipuedes, the 

 largest of which is now called Tiburon " (History of California, 18!}8, vol. I, p. 225). Dewey restricted 

 the name to a single small island near the Baja California coast. Farther references t(» the islands 

 and their designations are noted postea, p. 65. 



