Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 
3 
Special Reports by Members of the Scientific 
Staff based on Recent Explorations Con¬ 
ducted in the Interests of the Academy. 
EXPLORATIONS IN THE CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS, 
ARIZONA. 
By Witmer Stone, Sc. D. 
The mountain ranges of southern Arizona present peculiar attrac¬ 
tions to the zoologist and botanist in their isolation and the oppor¬ 
tunities they afford for the study of the zonal distribution of life. 
Rising from the wide spread Arizona desert their highest peaks 
reach an elevation of eight or nine thousand feet, and in climbing 
their slopes one passes from a region of cactus and yucca through 
belts of oak, juniper and pine to splendid forests of Douglass fir 
and finally bald peaks flanked by aspen thickets, the existence of 
which would never be suspected by the traveller on the desert but 
a few miles away. The differences in animal and plant life en¬ 
countered in the ascent are about as striking as one would experience 
in travelling from South Carolina to Canada along our Atlantic 
coast. 
The Chiricahuas, in the southeastern corner of the State, had al¬ 
ways appealed to me as their botany had not been thoroughly re¬ 
ported upon, while the periodic visits of the thick-billed parrots 
of Mexico made the possibilities of their bird life interesting. 
An opportunity for visiting these mountains came in the spring 
of 1919 through an invitation from Mr. and Mrs. J. Eugene Law 
of Berkeley, California, for Mrs. Stone and myself to join them as 
guests on a camping trip to Pinery Canyon on the western slope 
of the range. 
Reaching Willcox on the Southern Pacific Railroad on the morn- 
