TO THE COCO-MARICOPA VILLAGES. 193 
are only the wmpression of scales.” I cannot imagine 
what led to this mistake on the part of the Major; for a 
mistake it certainly is. Scales were as plainly seen on 
all we caught as upon any fish; and I found no diffi- 
culty in taking them off with my finger-nails from the 
smallest specimens. We caught them at different 
times from eight to eighteen inches in length. 
After coming into camp to-day, I determined to 
push on with my party to the villages of the Pimo 
of what he calls the Petahaya Tepexicensis, which is undoubtedly the 
plant in question—See Historia Plantarum Nove Hispanie.—V ol. Il. 
p- 170. Vol. IIL. p. 94. Matriti, Anno MpccLxxx. 
Baron Humboldt says, “ At the foot of the mountains of California, 
we discover only sand, or a stony stratum, on which cylindrical cacti 
(organos del tunal) shoot up to extraordinary heights.”——Polit. Essay 
on New Spain, Vol. II. p. 828. This name is probably derived, first, 
from the flutings of the stem, which resemble the pipes of an organ ; and 
second, from the resemblance which the fruit has in taste to the tural, 
or Indian fig. 
Pattie, an Indian trader and trapper, whospent six years (from 1824 
to 1829) in the interior parts of the continent, during which period he 
passed several times up and down the Gila, says, “ A species of tree, which 
Thad never seen before, here arrested my attention. It grows to the 
height of forty or fifty feet. The top is cone-shaped, and almost without 
foliage. The bark resembles that of the prickly pear ; and the body is 
covered with thorns. I have seen some three feet in diameter at the 
root, and throwing up twelve distinct shafts."—Personal Narrative of 
Six Years Journeyings, &e. p. 68. 
Again, this plant is mentioned by Lieut. Hardy, who visited Sono- 
ra in the years 1825-28. He speaks of a stick which was used for 
“detaching the fruit from the tops of the petahaya, a plant of the cylin- 
drical cactus species, growing from eight to twenty feet in height.” And 
in another place, he says, “ Our route lay over a plain, upon which im- 
mense quantities of the petahaya were growing.”—Travels in the Inte- 
rior of Memico, p. 212. 
VOL. I1.—13 
