EXPLORATIONS IN CAPE REGION. 75 1 



San Pablo, with the very high peak of Santa Genoveva 

 at the western end. This is the highest peak of the 

 Sierras, probably reaching near 8000 feet. 



San Bernardo, Sierra de la Laguna, which again is a 

 cluster of very high peaks, comprising La Aguja or El 

 Picacho, Porfirio Diaz, Mt. Limantour, San Rafael, etc., 

 while of smaller ridges there are El Molero, Sirvuelar, 

 La Torra, San Leonicio, all situated between San Ber- 

 nardo and Sierra la Laguna proper. 



Of this very large number of sierras we have only ex- 

 plored with any accuracy the most southern and the most 

 northern, viz. : El Taste and Sierra Laguna. These parts 

 resemble each other in the one respect that they contain 

 each a level flat or meadow surrounded by higher peaks 

 and wooded hills. El Taste and Sierra Laguna signify 

 in each case not a high peak isolated from others, but 

 merely a collective name for a group of mountains around 

 these two meadows. El Taste is undoubtedly one of the 

 few Indian names that has survived in the Cape Region. 

 In Mayo, the Sonora dialect, it means a flat, level piece 

 of ground, where the Indians run their horse races. The 

 level meadow in El Taste is also known as La Carrerita, 

 meaning the same thing in Spanish. It consists of one 

 larger and several smaller flats, none being over thirty 

 acres in extent. To the west and several miles distant is 

 a peak, which on the Coast Survey maps is marked as the 

 El Candelero, but which name is not known by any in- 

 habitants of the district. On that account we found it 

 best to retain for this, the most visible peak from the west, 

 the name El Taste. My aneroid barometer showed the 

 peak to be 5500 feet high. It is the last high peak to the 

 west, very precipitous towards the Pacific and quite a 

 landmark from the coast. On the east side of La Car- 

 rerita the sierra rises gradually into a very steep narrow 



