THE BATOPILAS DISTRICT. 
333 
tains. This trail took me well to the 
southward of the one traversed on enter¬ 
ing the mountains, and gave me a new 
and interesting country. 
On the high mountain crest between 
Urique and Batopilas I had gained my 
furthest point west. The Sierra Madres 
break more abruptly on their westward 
slopes, and from the crest we could make 
out the great plains of Sinaloa and Sonora 
stretching far away toward the Gulf of 
California. The country to the west in 
Sonora and Northern Sinaloa is one of the 
most fertile in Mexico. The valleys of 
the Fuerte, the Mayo, and the Yaqui are 
as rich as any river valleys in North 
America, and perfectly susceptible of 
sustaining a dense population, or will be 
when all the Indian troubles of that 
region are definitely settled. Most of the 
