PLAIN OF SAN AUGUSTIN 



A sterile district, where small agaves are numerous, with a few yuccas, Fouquieras, and 

 several species of small cactuses. The tall "poles" are the flower stalks of the Agave shawii 



whales, which animals suffered the usual 

 fate of their kind and were killed or 

 driven away by the whalers. All of this 

 coast from Cape San Eugenio to Ense- 

 nada once abounded with whales, sea 

 elephants, fur seal, and sea otter. One 

 of the first missionaries who visited the 

 coast near Cape San Eugenio speaks of 

 the abundance of the sea otter and the 

 ease with which his Indian companions 

 killed them. These animals were still 

 plentiful in 1809, when the American 

 smuggling and trading ship Dromio vis- 

 ited Ensenada and bartered with the na- 

 tives for 1,700 sea-otter skins. 



At the extreme head of Scammon 

 Lagoon, in the Santa Clara Desert, is an 

 enormous deposit of rock-salt, and a 

 similar deposit exists on the southern 

 end of this desert, near Ballenas Bay. 

 Water is so scarce on this plain and there 

 are so many rainless seasons that there is 

 little prospect for any agricultural de- 

 velopment (see pages 445 and 465). 



South of the Santa Clara Desert the 

 hills again border the coast for a few 



miles and then give way to the Magda- 

 lena Plains. This is another low coastal 

 area which extends southeasterly along 

 shore to Magdalena Bay and beyond, a 

 distance of more than 200 miles. It 

 varies from 10 to 30 miles in width and 

 contains a large amount of fertile land, 

 though surface water is extremely scanty. 

 Water exists at moderate depth in many 

 places, and one artesian well is flowing 

 near the northern end of the plains. 



THE; AMERICAN ATTEMPTS TO COLONIZE 

 MAGDAEENA BAY UNSUCCESSFUL, 



In 1870 an American colonization 

 company, owning a large concession of 

 land on Magdalena Plain, made an at- 

 tempt to establish a colony on an open 

 area known as the Llano de Yrais, bor- 

 dering Magdalena Bay. In common 

 with all other attempts to colonize the 

 peninsula, this effort was a complete 

 failure and was soon abandoned. 



It was discovered, however, that the 

 orchilla, a lichen resembling Spanish 

 moss and growing abundantly on the 



