EDWARD PALMER 351 



from 1881 to 1884 lie was almost continuously at work opening pre- 

 historic mounds and graves in the states of Tennessee, Arkansas, Indi- 

 ana, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. 



In the latter part of 1885 he was sent to southern Florida to make 

 a collection of corals, echinoderms, mollusca and other invertebrates for 

 the approaching exposition at New Orleans. He gathered a wealth of 

 valuable material, which, after the closing of the Exposition, became 

 the property of the United States National Museum. 



He was sent once more to the southwestern region of the United 

 States, where he made a very complete collection of material illustrating 

 the arts of the Cocopa, Pima and Yuma Indians. Much of his material 

 was of an ethno-botanic nature, including a long list of food-plants, 

 medicinal plants, fiber plants, etc., of the Indians, together with notes 

 on the methods of cooking, brewing, extracting fibers, basket-making 

 and the like. 



Much pleased with Dr. Palmer's success, Professor Baird, director 

 of the U. S. National Museum, decided to send him to the mountains of 

 southwestern Chihuahua, a part of the western Sierra Madre of Mexico, 

 for the purpose of studying the Tarahumara Indians of that region, an 

 interesting tribe inhabiting caves and dwellings of the most primitive 

 kinds; with the object of comparing them with the Cliff Dwellers of 

 Arizona and New Mexico. Letters were sent to Governor Alexander 

 R. Shepherd, then vice-president and general manager of the Silver 

 Mining Company at Batopilas, informing him of Dr. Palmer's purposed 

 visit, and asking such assistance as Governor Shepherd might be willing 

 to give him in the prosecution of his work. Professor Baird's request 

 met with a cordial and prompt response from Governor Shepherd, who 

 did everything in his power to aid him. 



Much botanical work was done in the immediate vicinity of Bato- 

 pilas, especially at the Hacienda de San Miguel, situated at an altitude 

 of 1,600 feet above the sea-level, the Hacienda San Jose, about twenty- 

 five miles farther down the narrow gorge of the Eio Batopilas; at the 

 Cumbre, or summit of the ridge above Batopilas, 8,850 feet above sea- 

 level, where he found columbines, lupines, Gaultheria, gentians, alders, 

 and Ceanothus; and at the Indian village of Norogachic, about 150 

 miles north of Batopilas, in the Sierra Madre, at an elevation of about 

 8,500 feet. This place is surrounded by mountain peaks more or less 

 covered by junipers, madronos, manzanillas, pines and oaks, with a 

 considerable snowfall during the winter months. 



Among the plants collected in this region several proved to be new 

 to science, and many were of economic importance. A list of them was 

 published by Sereno Watson in the Proceedings of the American Acad- 

 emy, Vol. 21, 1886. The ethnological material was sent to the U. S. 

 National Museum. 



