of ways. There was a constant variety in the forest, as we wound our way through it. The setting, the base, was of cactus in infinite variety, long snake-like forms drooping gracefully, others pear-shaped, ranging in colors from vivid impossible sea-green, to the richest purple and all its variants; or now we were in a forest of cholla, that appeared like colossal bunches of grapes, the plants being six or seven feet in height, forming a base, from which grew a great pitahaya, like coyotes around a jaguar. There was a constant color change, greens pervading, and over all was drawn an ineffable lacelike silvery haze or tint, that added to its unreal and artificial appearance. There was no apparent law or order in the forest growth along the delta, and that it reaches north along the Encinas desert is shown by the following from Dr. McGee in his paper on the Seris in the report of the National Museum: Ordinarily, the Saguesa like the Saguaro (in Seri land) is sparsely distributed, but there is an immense tract between the desert of Encinas, and the eastern base of the Sierra Seri, in which it forms a literal forest, the giant trunks close set as those of trees in normal woodlands. Now we were gliding silently, or walking through a region where the giant Cereus held sway, the tall columns being everywhere evident. A mile beyond, or it might be one hundred yards, the bush-like pitahayas asserted themselves, or the colossal hecho, and again we came to some friendly ground, where all these forms 1 were growing side by side in great luxuriance. Suddenly the forest would thin out, and a big jisto tree would appear, black and forbidding, against the sky, then out upon a vast llano as level as a floor we passed, where a few yellow or golden stalks told that grass grew here in the time of summer rains. Perhaps the llano is red, or it may be gray, or white, and beyond are the purple mountains, Sochi and Cohuincahui, grading into infinite tints over the distant forest. These llano are found occasionally in the very heart of the forest, innocent of the slightest vegetation, a marvel of contrast. On the oldest Spanish maps may be seen the real line of the road we are following, or one near it, yet never crossed by a motor car, rarely by an alien, sacred to the Yaqui, who with a Serian dislike for outsiders, has succeeded in sequestering his land for ages. The car was a trackless ferro carril to the natives, and the picturesque and ancient Yaqui we met riding slowly along on an earless burro, with jangling spurs and complicated matadura, 1 Saguaro (Cereus giganteus). Saguesa (hecho) (Cereus pecten-aboriginum). Cina (Cereus schotti). tarried awhile under a big pitahaya, to gaze at the strange thing, the last of the invaders of the land. The pack trains met with in the heart of the forest were often demoralized. Burros and mules stopped, gazed at the strange thing intently, then, in concert, took to the forest, to be rounded up later on by the burro-mounted vaqueros; others, again, in long picturesque lines, paid no attention to us. These trains were all part of the strange picture. One was a bat guano or pack train from the famous Bacatete bat caves in the mountains, where at sundown the bats stream out in such vast numbers that they resemble a column of black smoke, that gradually widens out and is dissipated in the purple cañons. The Yaquis collect the guano, pack two bags on each burro, and drive the patient animals through the forest to Esperanza, where it is shipped to California to rose growers and owners of fine gardens. Long lines of burros are laden with garbanzas, as staple a food to the Yaqui as rice is to the Chinaman. Now a deer leaps across the road far ahead, stops, and gazes at the oncoming monster, or a big white-tailed jack rabbit, with a coyote lurking along, shies as we appear. While the giant cacti are the attraction of the forest and make it, there are other trees that lend character to the region. Suddenly the hechos and pitahayas disappear; long graceful |