3 °° 
CAVE AND CLIFF DWELLERS. 
branch of the Urique River, for we had 
turned off from the main canon into 
a smaller one, and then started up the 
steep mountain side. Up the weary 
mules scrambled and climbed for six long 
hours, resting now and then while we 
looked backward and downward at the 
land of the tropics, all wayside signs of 
which were fast disappearing. Just before 
leaving the Urique River we came to a 
native tannery, which was about as prim¬ 
itive an affair as any we saw in the whole 
Sierra Madres. For some two hundred 
yards along the wide river its bottom was 
white with outstretched hides held there 
by heavy stones on the upstream corners, 
and these hides were kept there for 
weeks to rid them of their hair. Of 
course we tasted but little of the water 
below that point. On enormous bent 
