132 
SERILAXD 
The coast of Seriland has been surveyed, and long ago a pearl 
fishery was maintained for a time on its borders near Punta 
Tej)opa. Tliere is a tradition that Sergeant Escalante (he who 
later swam the C4ila and saw Casa Grande) ivandered into the 
bounding desert in the seventeenth century, and dug a shallow 
well which still }nelds a yellow nitrous water and is known some- 
times as Poso Escalante, sometimes as Agua Amarillo ; and there 
are vague rumors of prospectors and other ])arties landing on 
island and mainland, but soon retreating ivith loss of life from 
])oisoned arrow or still more poignant thirst. It is known, too, 
from living witnesses that Sr Pascual Encinas pushed stock- 
raising well toward the desert and sometimes even across it to 
the saline waters at the eastern base of Sierra Seri, the Indians 
contenting themselves with a heavy im])Ost of surreptitiously 
slaughtered stock, and that he twice or oftener visited Tihuron^ 
once with a small party for a few hours, once with a larger party^ 
including horses transported by a .steam vessel, for two or three 
days; hut until 189o (when Encinas’ trustiest assistants were 
added to our party and taken far beyond their })revious knowl- 
edge) the interior, continental and insular, was never surveyed, 
most of it never seen by white men. 
The previou-sly publi.shed nomenclature is ado[)ted so far as it 
goes, together with a part of the unpublished field nomenclature 
of the Hydrographic Office, save for a few tritling exceptions 
mostly made with the object of expressing the generic elements 
in the language of Mexico (articles being omitted for brevity)- 
So far as practicable the s))ecific elements, especially on the 
insular tract, are Seri, the accents being indicated here but not 
on the map. It has been sought to use names originally con- 
notive yet of such character as readily to become denotive, due 
regard l)eing given to euphony and brevity — qualities not easily 
found among the simple-minded savages. The names a])])lied 
are as follows, those marked bv asterisks being new and those 
marked by obelisks being recast : 
* Seriland: Extra- vernacular name of tribe with English locative. 
Mar de Cortez (Sea of Cortez = Gulf of California) : Customary Spanish 
designation. 
tIslaTiburon (Shark island): Spanish. 
t Isla San Esteban (Saint Stephen island) : Spanish. 
t Isla Tas5s'ne (Pelican island) : Specific Seri (sometimes called Alcatraz 
— Pelican in Spanish). 
Estrecho [or El] Intiernillo (Hellish strait) : Spanish. 
