278 The National Geographic Magazine 



Beaumont, Texas, where he felt sure 

 that a profitable field would- be devel- 

 oped. The reports of the United States 

 Geological Survey indicated at that time 

 the probability of finding oil in this vi- 

 cinity, because of the external oil indi- 

 cations which had long been observed 

 there ; but it was not the province of the 

 purvey to promote any individual lo- 

 cality; therefore Captain lyUcas sought 

 further, and without much success. 



While the Texas oil-fever is still at its 

 speculative height, the same excitement 

 has broken out in a new spot— west- 

 ern Wyoming — on the Oregon Short 

 lyine Railroad. The construction work 

 of the railroad company developed a 

 flowing well which, when .allowance is 

 made, for the enormous exaggeration 

 which inevitably follows in this indus- 

 try, yields perhaps five barrels per day. 

 The result has been the incorporation 



of many companies to take up tracts of 

 heretofore very low-priced land. The 

 lack of confidence of the present specu- 

 lators is well shown by their inactivitj^ 

 as to actual drilling. Nevertheless, we 

 can recognize that geological conditions 

 are favorable for a considerable supplj^ 

 of petroleum in this neighborhood of 

 the ordinary easily refined 'quality — a 

 fact which is only of considerable inter: 

 est to the public it the developments 

 cause the typical sensation-producing 

 "gushers," in which case the excite- 

 ment will be of value by peopling a re- 

 gion which would otherwise remain un- 

 developed for many years. We already 

 know of good oil fields in the neighbor- 

 hood of Casper, Wyoming, and in many 

 other portions of the State, but they 

 have lacked sensationalism and have 

 been subject to conservative develop- 

 ment by careful men. 



THE SERI INDIANS 



SEVERAIv years since Prof. W J 

 McGee and Mr. Willard D. John- 

 son passed several months in the 

 land of the Seri, studying the country 

 and the customs of these little-known 

 people. 



A brief summary by Mr. McGee of 

 the work then done appeared later in 

 this Magazine (volume vii. No. 4) . The 

 Bureau of American Ethnology has re- 

 cently published in a handsome volume 

 the official report of Professor McGee, 

 from which the following extracts are 

 made: 



The most noticeable social fact re- 

 vealed about the Seri rancherias is the 

 prominence of the females, especially 

 the elder women, in the management of 

 everyday affairs. The matrons erect 

 the jacales without help from men or 

 boys; they carry the meager belongings 

 of the family and dispose them about 



the habitation in conformity with gen- 

 eral custom and immediate convenience, 

 and after the household is prepared the 

 men approach and range themselves 

 about, apparently in a definite order, 

 the matron's eldest brother coming first, 

 the younger brothers next, and finally 

 the husband, who squats in or outside 

 of the open end of the bower. Accord- 

 ing to Mashem's iterated explanations, 

 which were corroborated by several 

 elder women (notably the clan-mother 

 known to the Mexicans as Juana Maria) 

 and verified by observation of the fam- 

 ily movements, the house and its con- 

 tents belong exclusively to the matron, 

 though her brothers are entitled to 

 places within it whenever they wish; 

 while the husband has neither title nor 

 fixed place, " because he belongs to an- 

 other house" — though, as a matter of 

 fact, he is frequently at or in the hut 



