494 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. HI. No. 66. 



pushed over the Malpais and a difficult trail 

 was laid to California, then essentially a 

 part of Mexico ; and later, as American en- 

 terprise pushed toward the Pacific, another 

 trail was pushed out, in part along the older 

 one, and trod by pioneers until better routes 

 were found along the Gila and further 

 northward. The trails, Mexican and Amer- 

 ican, pass by the only known waters of the 

 Malpais ; and knowledge of the few widely 

 separated tinajas'-i= and springs was bought 

 at the price of many lives. But while the 

 Malpais was thus explored, albeit at great 

 cost, Seriland was protected by a barrier 

 desert and its savage owners so completely 

 that the tide of exploration was practically 

 checked ; and Seriland remained unknown, 

 save as to its coast, and except in a vague 

 way as the home of a blood-thirsty tribe 

 from time immemorial. 



During the autumn of 1894 an expedition 

 was conducted by the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology through Papagueria and into the 

 border of the Seri country for purposes of 

 ethnic and collateral research ; during the 

 past autumn an expedition of related aim 

 was conducted along other lines through 

 Papagueria and into Seriland, which was 

 thus for the first time explored and surveyed 

 with some degree of thoroughness. The pri- 

 mary purpose of the later expedition was 

 the making of collections representing the 

 habits and customs, and especially the mari- 

 time life of the Seri Indians ; but so far as 

 practicable, advantage was taken of the op- 

 portunity for observation in other directions, 

 not only in the Seri country, but through- 

 out Papagueria. Some of the lines of ob- 

 servation may be indicated briefly. 



*Tinaia, as used by Spanish Americans, is a natural 

 bowl or bowl-shape cavity, specifically the cavity be- 

 low a ■waterfall, especiallj' when partly filled with 

 ■water ; in a more general way it is extended to tem- 

 porary pools, springs too feeble to form streams, etc. 

 In Its specific application it has no equivalent in, and 

 ■would be a desirable addition to, the English lan- 

 guage. 



GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 



The territory traversed by the two expe- 

 ditions may be conceived as a great plain 

 sloping southwestward from the foothills of 

 the Sierra Madre to the Gulf of California, 

 relieved by occasional rugged mountain 

 ranges generally trending parallel ■with the 

 high Sierra which divide the plain into a 

 succession of lesser plains or broad valleys ; 

 and the great plain must be conceived as 

 undulating somewhat, the chief irregularity 

 being the subcontinental divide coincid- 

 ing approximately with the international 

 boundary. 



The region is extremely arid, the annual 

 rainfall averaging probably less than five 

 inches, and perhaps less than two inches 

 throughout the western half of the area. 

 Streams gather in the mountain gorges, and 

 those heading in the Sierra unite to form a 

 few rivers ; but as the waters push out over 

 the plain they are partly evaporated, partly 

 absorbed by the dry earth, so that even the 

 highest freshets never reach the sea ; and 

 most of the streams flow only a few miles or 

 at most a few scores of miles, and this only 

 during the rainy seasons or after sporadic 

 storms. 



The mountains, especially the minor 

 ranges of the Sierra, are notable for rugged- 

 ness and steepness of profile; they are re- 

 markable also in that they usually rise from 

 the plain abruptly or with relatively in- 

 conspicuous intermediate slopes — asa clever 

 writer expresses it (picturesquely, but mis- 

 takenljr, except in appearance) they are 'aa 

 men buried to the neck.' The mountain 

 ranges are either naked rocks or steep talus 

 slopes of coarse debris, supporting a scant 

 sub-desert vegetation which increases in 

 abundance toward the summits; the rocks 

 being either metamorphic sedimentaries 

 probably of Mesozoic age, or somewhat 

 younger volcanics, a few nucleal ridges be- 

 ing granitoid. The broad intermontane 

 plains are made up in part of alluvial or 



