COPPER MINES. 
325 
Rocky Mountains. My materials in this department 
are copious, and will constitute the subject of a future 
memoir. 
<CbThe Apache nation as a whole is one of the most 
widely disseminated on the North American Continent, 
and embraces a great many tribes which are as yet 
only known to us by name. Nor are we even able to 
say with certainty whether all the tribes said to be of 
the Apache stock belong to it or not. It is only by a 
comparison of their languages that their ethnological 
position can be accurately determined, In general 
terms, they may be said to extend from the Pecos on 
the east to the desert bordering on the Gulf of Califor- 
nia (the limit of which is the valley of the Santa Cruz, 
south of the Gila), and to the Colorado, north of that 
river ; or from the 103d degree of longitude west from 
Greenwich to the 114th. From north to south they 
extend from the country of the Utahs (Yutas), in lati- 
tude 38° north to about the 30th parallel. Beyond 
this they have no fixed habitations, though they range 
about two degrees further south in their predatory 
incursions in the States of Chihuahua and Sonora3 On 
the Colorado River of California are many tribes only 
known by name ; but whether they are allied to the 
Apache nation or to some of the California families is 
not known. The great Navajo (pronounced Navaho) 
tribe, the most populous of any west of the Rocky 
Mountains, in the district named, belongs to the 
Apache family ; and I have no doubt that when an 
examination is made of the languages and other means 
of comparison, tribes still further to the north will be 
found to belong to the same stock. In fact, from 
