Chap. XI. CHALK FORMATION IN THE SIERRA MADRE. 381 
I heard much of certain national games of the Taru- 
mares and other Pueblo Indians of the States of Chihuahua 
and Sonora. Whole tribes or communities have foot- 
races, continuing from sunrise to sunset, the aim of which 
is to see who shall hold out longest. Each party rolls a 
ball before them over hill and valley. I was told that 
when they sink exhausted, they open the veins of their 
legs, and that women stand at certain parts of the road 
ready to pour w T ater over those who faint. 
We left our carriages at Concepcion, and continued our 
journey down the valley on horseback. The first village 
on the road is Santo Tomas. Its situation is full of geolo- 
gical interest. The eastern sierra rises here to its greatest 
height, the Cerro de Santo Tomas, at the foot of which the 
valley is crossed by a bank consisting of layers of a chalky 
limestone enclosing flints, through a narrow cleft in which, 
with precipitous sides, the stream has forced a passage. 
Beyond this singular threshold it passes by the village of 
Tejologachic into the open valley which bears the same 
character as mentioned above. We hastened forward 
without any stoppage, and passed the night in Matachic. 
Two days previously the Apaches had stolen 150 head 
of cattle, and almost the whole male population of the 
village, joined by that of Tejologachic, Santo Tomas, 
Temosachic, and Yepdmera, had started on an expedition 
against the savages. Between Matachic and Temosachic 
we stopped at a rancho belonging to a friend of Don 
Guillermo. We found old Don Bias in a pitiable con- 
dition. An Apache had run him through the body the 
week before with a lance ; yet it seemed to me that he 
would recover from the dangerous wound. Upon our 
return we slept at the same rancho, and it struck me that, 
were the Indians to destroy some of its inhabitants, their 
