306 Mexican Caves with Human Remains. [April, 



MEXICAN CAVES WITH HUMAN REMAINS. 



BY EDWARD PALMER. 



NEAR the western border of the State of Coahuila, Mexico, are 

 to be found several caves in the limestone formation of the 

 mountains. In these caves human remains were found. This 

 section of country under consideration is commonly called the 

 Lajona, which means overflowed. During the rainy season, 

 which is the months of July, August and September, the river 

 Nazas overflows its banks, and inundates the valley. Of late 

 years cotton and corn has been cultivated. To prevent the ex- 

 cess of water from destroying the plants, large canals are dug 

 round the fields, and connected with the river. These canals are 

 used for irrigating the crops. Previous to the advent of the 

 Spaniards this section could not have been much cultivated, as 

 the good land was overflowed at the growing season, and previous 

 to the rains it was too dry for crops to mature before the wet 

 season, when the overflow would destroy them. 



It presents to the eye of an observer a country unfit to sustain 

 a large permanent people without modern appliances. Its nu- 

 merous mountains are dry and rocky, without trees, though 

 having a few stunty bushes and plants in the shady recesses. 

 The valley also is as dry and barren except immediately about 

 the receding waters. The plants naturally produced in a country 

 of this character are the cactus, agave, yucca, mesquite, Larrea 

 mexicana, and allied forms. These are either armed with thorns, 

 or are so excessively bitter that neither wild nor domestic animals 

 using them for food can exterminate them. , 



Animals are scarce ; deer, two species of rabbits, skunk, 

 badgers, ground squirrels, and rats, with snakes, lizards, birds 

 and fish, are limited in number, except rabbits and blackbirds. 



The food products of a country determines its capacity to sus- 

 tain life, especially when without domestic animals, and situated 

 as these people were in the midst of a desert waste without any 

 productive country immediately near from which to draw food 

 supplies from, moving from place to place as the food and water 

 supply admitted during the dry season, in the wet they could with 

 pack-animals move their effects to the near mountains in which 

 water is then to be found. During the dry season there are but 

 two plants in that section, which could be counted upon for a sup- 

 ply of food, game being merely incidental. 



