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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



forest of THE "cirio" (Idria columnaris) , near san Fernando 



This tree is one of the strange desert plants peculiar to Lower California. It varies from 

 30 to 60 feet in height, and is covered by numberless short and extremely thorny branchlets 

 with small leaves. The flowers are pale yellow and grow in tufts on the ends of numerous 

 long, slender stems at the extreme tops of the trees. The bark is pale greenish yellow (see 

 pages 449 and 461). 



In the south we traversed long sections 

 of trails which had been made passable 

 by laboriously clearing away great quan- 

 tities of broken lava, where otherwise 

 the route would have been impracticable. 

 These were bits of the "Camino Real," 

 or Royal Highway, made centuries be- 

 fore by the Indians under direction of 

 the early missionaries. These roads are 

 all foot-trails, wagon roads only existing 

 in detached stretches here and there. 

 Two wagon roads cross the peninsula, 

 one from Ensenada to San Eelipe Bay, 

 branching in the interior to Calexico on 

 the California border, and another from 



La Paz to Todos Santos. Two others 

 penetrate the northern part of the penin- 

 sula from the border, one down the top 

 of the Laguna Hansen Mountains and 

 the other along the coast from near San 

 Diego to below San Quintin. Three or 

 four of these roads penetrate the inte- 

 rior from landing places on the west 

 coast, usually leading to some mining 

 camp. 



Today the Indians have vanished from 

 all parts of their former territory, ex- 

 cept a few in the extreme northern end 

 of the peninsula. Some of the old mis- 

 sion churches are still in use, but most 



