1 The more noteworthy details of the organization and work of the two expeditions are set forth in the administrative reports of the Bureau for the fiscal years 1894-95 and 1895-96. Certain members of this party are shown in the accompanying half-tone, forming plate II: Señor Encinas seated at the end of the table; his son, Don Manuel (bareheaded), and Don Ygnacio Lozania at his right; a grandson behind him, and Señor Alvemar-Leon seated at his left, with Mashém kneeling over the table in the foreground.

2 The larger map was drawn early in 1896, and a preliminary edition in the form of a photolithograph of the drawing was published in the National Geographic Magazine, vol. VII, 1896. It is proper—and historically desirable—to explain that while a considerable part of the copy for this paper was prepared at about the same time, circumstances prevented the completion of the manuscript and the final rectification of the nomenclature and bibliographic references until September 1, 1900.

3 Johnson peak. It is proper to say that this name was applied by the author (and leader of the expedition) after the drawing was completed and submitted by Mr Johnson, as a meager tribute to his excellent work in the field and on the drawings named.

4 An asterisk indicates new names, an obelisk old names restored or colloquial names adopted.

5 The following monthly and annual meteorologic summaries, compiled from United States Weather Bureau records at these stations, have been kindly furnished by Prof. Willis L. Moore, Superintendent of the Bureau. The tabulated records represent the observations of twenty years at Yuma and ten years at Tucson.

6 Defined and described in Sheetflood Erosion, Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. VII, 1897, p. 87.

7 Tinaja Trinchera was entirely dry and without trace of carrizal in December, 1894.

8 The physiographic features of the Sonoran province in general are treated in greater detail in a paper on Sheetflood Erosion, Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., vol. VIII, 1897, pp. 87-112, and in a paper on Papagueria, Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. IX, 1898, pp. 345-371; while certain local features are described in a paper on Seriland, prepared jointly with Willard D. Johnson, Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. VII, 1896, pp. 125-133. The aggregate available fresh water of Seriland is estimated on p. 181*.

9 Noted by Willard D. Johnson.

10 The vital characteristics of the region have been described in some detail in The Beginning of Agriculture, American Anthropologist, vol. VIII, 1805, pp. 350-375; The Beginning of Zooculture, American Anthropologist, vol. X, 1897, pp. 215-230; and Expedition to Seriland, Science, vol. III, 1898, pp. 493-505.

11 The expedition of 1895, during which Seriland was surveyed, was not provided with apparatus for accurate vertical measurement, and hence altitudes were only approximately determined. The determinations by Mr Johnson, who executed the topographic surveys, indicated that even the lowest part of the valley is somewhat above sea-level; but other facts indicate that it actually lies below the level of the waters of the gulf, and forms a miniature homologue of Colorado desert (in southern California): in the first place the central playa, which is undoubtedly flooded occasionally if not semiannually, does not embouch into, and has no channels extending toward, the sea; in the second place it is highly saline; again, the alluvial fans of Rio Bacuache and (especially) of Rio Sonora are so placed as to intercept and dam the trough occupied by Laguna la Cruz in its southern portion, and Playa Noriega in its northern portion; concordantly, the detail configuration of the coast indicates marine transgression, apparently due to secular subsidence of the land—though the abundant marine shells of recent species toward the valley-bottom attest recent displacement of the sea. On the whole, the facts seem to indicate that, during recent geologic times, the lower portion of this valley was a shallow gulf extending northward (and probably also southward) from the eastern limit of Bahia Kino; that the importation and deposition of sediment, chiefly by Rio Sonora, outran the secular subsidence of the land so far as to displace the waters of the gulf in its central portion and to separate the northern arm from the sea; and that the waters of this northern arm were subsequently evaporated, disappearing finally in the central playa in which local inflow and evaporation are balanced by the usual mechanism of interior basins.

12 Both the routes were traversed by the expedition of 1895, the former from the headwaters of Rio Bacuache to the upper portion of its alluvial fan, and then from the abandoned Rancho Libertad on the lower portion of the fan across Desierto Encinas by way of Barranca Salina. In the northern crossing a light vehicle (the first to traverse this portion of the desert), drawn by four horses and aided by several horsemen, was taken from Rancho Libertad across the northern portion of Playa Noriega and thence up Arroyo Mitchell to a point midway between Barranca Salina and Johnson peak, and was brought back over the same route. The Encinas trail from Rancho San Francisco de Costa Rica was traversed four times each way by the same outfit, and once each way by the running gear of a heavy wagon carrying the rude craft (about 1,000 pounds in weight) in which the Seri waters were navigated, this vehicle being drawn by 8 to 12 horses, frequently changed. Typical aspects of both routes are shown in plate III, the upper figure representing the Encinas trail and the lower a distant view of Sierra Seri, taken from Playa Noriega, in the depths of Desierto Encinas.

13 The northern portion, as seen from the east, is shown in plate III; the southern portion, as seen from the west, appears in the upper part of plate IV, while the southwesternmost point is shown in the lower part of the same plate.

14 Originally the name Islas Sal-si-puedes (Get-out-if-canst) was applied to the various islands of this gateway of the gulf, including San Lorenzo, San Esteban, and San Agustin (now Tiburon), together with the smaller islets, as shown in the map of Padre Fernando Consag (in Noticia de la California y de su Conquista, etc., por el Padre Miguel Venegas, 1757, tomo III, p. 194); and Padre Consag’s account of the currents encountered in 1746 explains the designation: “The great sea which runs here even in fair weather would not allow us to stay, and it was with great difficulty we took in a little water. We now attempted to weather the Cape of San Gabriel de Sal-si-puedes, so greatly dreaded by seamen on account of those islands, several contiguous points of land and many ledges of sunken rocks extending a great way from the land. Here the sea is so agitated by the current that a gale or a calm makes but little difference” (English translation of Venegas’ Noticia, titled A Natural and Civil History of California, 1759, vol. II, pp. 312-313). Hittell speaks of “the group of islands known as Salsipuedes, the largest of which is now called Tiburon” (History of California, 1898, vol. I, p. 225). Dewey restricted the name to a single small island near the Baja California coast. Further references to the islands and their designations are noted postea, p. 65.

15 Unquestionably the clearest view of El Infiernillo ever enjoyed by Caucasian eyes was that of Messrs Johnson and Mitchell from the culminating point of Sierra Seri (Johnson peak), which they occupied for about twenty-three hours on December 7 and 8, 1895. Mr Johnson’s notes on the appearance of the strait are as follows: “On the occasion of the ascent of Sierra Seri, which rises from the coast, shutting off the view of Isla Tiburon from the desert on the east, I received a striking impression of the elaborate and beautifully symmetrical plan of the long swirling currents of El Infiernillo. The climb had been made from the east direct to the summit peak, so that the first sight of both island and gulf was not only from close at hand, but from an elevation of about a mile. The crest of the ridge was reached at the instant of sunset, and the spectacle of the innumerable current-markings was brief. Our position was nearly opposite the northern end of the strait; and its elevation was so great that the opposite mainland and island shorelines were seen in map effect rather than in perspective. The entire strait, to its northern end at Punta Perla, was in the shadow of the island; and the current design was revealed only in the shadow. At the shadow-margin extending from the northern tip of the island the lines were sharply cut off; and beyond, along the westward bend of waters forming Bahia Tepopa and opening into the gulf in full sunlight, there was no suggestion of them. Within the shadow the effect was that of a film of oil on a water-surface which had been stirred and allowed to come to rest—though the regularity of the lines was as though the stirring had been orderly. Not the slightest motion was perceptible from the peak during the minute or two that the spectacle lasted before the sun disappeared and twilight fell, though the suggestion from configuration alone was that of violent swirling. The general movement was evidently southward toward Boca Infierno, and the swirls were apparently the result of frictional resistance along both shores; the system of curving lines as a whole was very much that which would be presented by a broad feather thrust into a bottle. There were central lines in great number, somewhat sinuous though never crossing, diverging one by one toward the shores on either hand, where they curved backward with complex interferences in large reversing arcs and many minute circlings. The straightening out of the curves in perspective was quite perceptible toward Boca Infierno, and beyond it was pronounced. The air appeared to be still, so that the current pattern was not at all obscured by waves; and the spectacle of the broad strait, appearing almost beneath me, incised with a crowded design of sweeping fine lines, the delicate clearness of which recalled a steel engraving, was peculiarly impressive. That we had been fortunate in the moment of reaching the summit was apparent next day. The spectacle was, indeed, repeated at sunrise and for a short period thereafter, though the general design was markedly different, and less intricacy of pattern was discernible, while the general effect was comparatively vague; perhaps the shadow of Sierra Seri was too heavy, or, more probably (as was my impression at the time), our position was not favorable for that direction of illumination. In full light during the day up to the hour of our departure in late afternoon, no hint or vestige of the current design remained. It was evident that the lines were brought out with especial clearness by the favorable illumination and comparative stillness of air; and it was particularly evident that the lines marked movements in the water, even if there were corresponding air-currents, since they harmonized perfectly with the configuration of the shores and with the trend of spits and bars and offshore markings seen through the shallow waters, especially toward the northern end of the strait. The accord between shore curves and the current lines seen in the evening indicated a southward motion much more vigorous than the reverse movement witnessed next morning; for the marked variation in the design noted in the morning was of a character strongly suggesting a reversed movement of the water, while the faintness of the markings then may perhaps have been due to comparative feebleness of current rather than to unfavorable lighting. Certainly the close agreement between the elaborate system of markings, so clearly revealed in the evening, and the prevailing curves of the shores would seem to indicate unmistakably that, whatever the direction and strength of flow, the markings were a product of current motion.”

16 Publication No. 56, U. S. Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Navigation, 1880, p. 142.

17 Op. cit., p. 143.

18 A stiller and navigable condition of the sea is shown in the view of Punta Ygnacio, plate IV.

19 Theodore H. Hittell, History of California, 1898, vol. I, pp. 43-44.

20 Contributions to the History of the Southwestern Portion of the United States (Hemenway Southwestern Archæological Expedition), Papers of the Archæological Institute of America, American series, V, 1890, p. 44.

21 Relation of Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca, translated from the Spanish by Buckingham Smith; New York, 1871, p. 172.

22 Ibid, p. 178.

23 Cf. Bandelier, Magazine of Western History, IV, 1886, p. 660.

24 Ibid, pp. 661-663; Papers of the Archæological Institute of America, American series, V, p. 118.

25 The Voyages of the English Nation to America, collected by Richard Hakluyt and edited by Edmund Goldsmid, 1890, vol. III, p. 317.

26 The Coronado Expedition, 1540-1542, Fourteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1896, p. 382.

27 As a harbor or anchorage marked “del Tiburon” on the map of “Domingo del Castillo, Piloto”, drawn in 1541, and reproduced in Historia de Nueva-España, escrita por su esclarecido Conquistador Hernán Cortés, aumentada con otras documentos, y notas, por el ilustrissimo Señor Don Francisco Antonio Lorenzana, Arzobispo de Mexico; Mexico, 1770, p. 328.

28 The Voyages of the English Nation to America, vol. IV, p. 6.

29 Winship, op. cit., p. 484.

30 Coronado’s March to Quivira, in J. V. Brower, Harahey (Memoirs of Explorations in the Basin of the Mississippi, vol. II), 1899, p. 36.

31 Cf. The History of Oregon, California, and the other Territories on the Northwest Coast of North America, by Robert Greenhow, 1845, p. 97; History of California, by Theodore H. Hittell, 1898, vol. I, p. 149.

32 Winship, op. cit., p. 502.

33 Ibid., p. 538.

34 It should he noted that Mr. F. W. Hodge, whose large acquaintance with the Southwest and its literature gives his opinion great weight, is inclined to class the Indians in question as Opata.

35 Op. cit., pp. 29-73.

36 Sonora Histórico y Descriptivo, por F. T. Dávila, 1894, p. 8.

37 A Natural and Civil History of California; translated from the original Spanish of Miguel Venegas; London, 1759, vol. I, preface.

38 Historia de los Trivmphos de Nvestra Santa Fee entre Gentes las mas Barbaras y Fieras del Nueuo Orbe; Madrid, 1645, p. 358. The “Heris” are identified as Seri by Bandelier (Final Report of Investigations among the Indians of the Southwestern United States, in Papers Arch. Inst. Am., American series, III, 1890, p. 74).

39 Op. cit., p. 11.

40 Venegas, op. cit., vol. I, p. 182.

41 Venegas, A Natural and Civil History of California, vol. I, p. 192.

42 Venegas, Noticia de la California, vol. I; Madrid, 1757, p. 219.

43 The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. XV (History of the North Mexican States, vol. I, 1531-1800), 1884, p. 252.

44 Apostolicos Afanes de la Compañia de Jesus, escritos por un Padre de la misma Sagrada Religion de su Provincia de Mexico; Barcelona, 1754, p. 246 et seq.

45 Translated somewhat freely from Resumen de Noticias, in Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, cuarta série, tomo I, 1856, pp. 235-236.

46 Tabula California, anno 1702 (Via terrestris in Californiam comperta et detecta per R. Patrem Eusebium Fran. Chino è S. I. Germanum. Adnotatis novis Missionibus ejusdem Soctis ab anno 1698 ad annum 1701), in Stocklein, Der Neue Welt-Bott, Augsburg und Grätz, 1726.

47 Elaborately mapped and established (on paper) as the “Puerto y Villa de la Libertad” in 1861 (Boletin de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografia y Estadistica, 1863, X, p. 263 et seq.), and actually maintained from 1875 to 1884 as the port of Libertad (not the abandoned Rancho Libertad on the border of Seriland), or Serna, according to Dávila (Sonora Histórico y Descriptivo, pp. 140, 309).

48 Identified by Alexandre de Humboldt in his Carte Générale du Royaume de la Nouvelle Espagne, of 1804 (in Atlas Géographique et Physique, Paris, 1811). So late as 1840 the old name was sometimes retained, e. g., on Robert Greenhow’s map accompanying his History of California and Oregon.

49 In one of the last letters from his pen, dated November 25, 1899, the late Dr Elliott Cones wrote, “I find you trailing Kino and Mange in 1694 precisely as I had them, and I make no doubt of the substantial accuracy of your typewritten MS. I accept your position that the large island they sighted and named San Agustin was not Tiburon, but Angel de la Guarda Isl.”

50 A mission founded in 1699 by Padre Melchor Bartiromo (Historia de la Compañia de Jesus en Nueva España, que esta escribiendo el P. Francisco Javier Alegre, 1842, tomo III, p. 117), of which the location has long been lost.

51 Resumen de Noticias, op. cit., tomo I, p. 321.

52 Op. cit., p. 275 (the year is misprinted 1800 on this page and in the index).

53 Resumen de Noticias, op. cit., tomo I, pp. 321-322.

54 Op. cit., tomo III, pp. 117-119.

55 Novissima et Accuratissima Septentrionalis ac Meridionalis Americæ, Amsterdam. (In American Maps, 1579-1796, Library U. S. Geological Survey, 135.)

56 Mar del Zvr, Hispanis, Mare Pacificum. (Ibid., 129.)

57 ’T Noorder Deel van Amerika, Leyden. (Ibid., 178.)

58 Nouvelle Carte de l’Amerique, Leyden. (Ibid., 156.)

59 L’Amerique Septentrionale Suivant les Nouvelles Observations, etc., Leyden. (Ibid., 181.) This island is not named, but is undoubtedly the Santa Inez of several other maps—the Angel de la Guarda of the present.

60 North America, according to ye Newest and most Exact Observations, etc., London. (Ibid., 93.)

61 Doubtless the mountain “La Giganta”, named by Admiral Otondo toward the end of the seventeenth century (Documentas para la Historia de Mexico, cuarta série, 1857, tomo V, p. 122), and noted by Hardy in 1820 (Travels in Interior of Mexico in 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828, London, 1829, p. 243).

62 A map of North America, with the European Settlements and whatever else is Remarkable in ye West Indies, from the latest and best Observations. (American maps, loc. cit., 110.)

63 Amerique Septentrionale Divisée en Ses Principales Parties. (Ibid., 109.)

64 Carte du Mexique et de la Floride, des Terres Angloises et des Isles Antilles, etc. (Ibid., 136.)

65 L’Amerique Septentrionale ... par G. de l’Isle: Amsterdam, Chez Pierre Mortier. (Ibid., 172.) The island is, of course, Santa Inez, i. e., Angel de la Guarda.

66 Map in Stocklein, op. cit.

67 Carte d’Amerique, etc. (American maps, loc. cit., 20.)

68 Amérique Septentrionale ... par le Sr. d’Anville, Paris. (Ibid., 50 and 51.)

69 Amérique Septentrionale ... par le Sr. Robert de Vaugondy, Paris. (Ibid., 27.)

70 L’Amerique Septentrionale, etc., Amsterdam. (Ibid., 160.)

71 A new map of North America, with the West India Islands.... Laid down according to the Latest Surveys, and Corrected from the Original Materials of Gover^r Pownall, London. (Ibid., 22.)

72 It seems probable that various early cartographers were misled by the traditional lore of “salineros”, or salt-making Indians, in combination with the unusual designation of these islands. In his text Padre Consag rendered the term “Sal-si-puedes”, and strongly emphasized the violent tidal currents and consequent dangers to vessels which suggested the vigorously idiomatic designation to early navigators (Venegas. Noticia de la California, III, p. 145); in the Venegas map (ibid., tomo I, p. 1) the name is used without the qualifying comma, and in the text it is hyphenated “Sal-si-puedes”, the author observing concerning the local currents, “These currents run with astonishing rapidity, and their noise is equal to that of a large rapid river among rocks; nor do they run only in one direction, but set in many intersected gyrations” (A Natural and Civil History of California, p. 63). And the “Sacerdote Religioso”, whose letters place him among the authorities on Lower California, wrote: “In the narrows of the gulf are a multitude of islets, for the passage being so dangerous to vessels they are called Sal si puedes” (Noticias de la Provincia de Californias, Valencia, 1794, p. 11); while Hardy, who navigated this portion of the gulf early in the present century (Travels in the Interior of Mexico, London, 1829, p. 279), mentioned a passage “between the islands called ‘Sal si Puedes’ (get back if you can)”. So, too, Duflot de Mofras wrote of “les îles de Sal si puedes (Sors si tu peux)” in his Explorations du Territoire de l’Orégon, Paris, 1814, p. 219. Bancroft properly reduced the obscure connotive phrase to the single denotive term “Salsipuedes,” and noted the signification as “Get out if thou canst” (North Mexican States, vol. I, p. 444). In 1873-1875 Dewey restricted the name to a single island and a channel, and emphasized the currents in the latter “against which sailing vessels found it almost impossible to make any headway” (The West Coast of Mexico, Publication 56, U. S. Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Navigation, 1880, p. 113), and rendered the name “Sal-si-puedes” in the text, “Sal si puedes” on the charts. Hittell’s reference to “the group of islands then known as Salsipuedes, the largest of which is now called Tiburon” (History of California, vol. I, p. 225), doubtless expresses the early use of the term precisely, save that the present Tiburon was long treated as a part of the mainland, while its names were applied to Isla Tassne or some other islet. Vide postea, p. 45.

73 Seno de California, etc., in Venegas, Noticia de la California, tomo III, p. 194.

74 Noticia de la California, tomo I, p. 1.

75 California, per P. Ferdinandum Consak, S. I., et alios, in Nachrichten von der amerikanischen Halbinsel Californien.... Geschrieben von einem Priester der Gesellschaft Jesu (identified as Jacob Baegert by Rau, Smithsonian Report, 1863, p. 352); Mannheim, 1773.

76 A New Map of the Whole Continent of America, London. (American maps, loc. cit., 4.)

77 This cartography reappeared occasionally up to about the middle of the nineteenth century, as illustrated by the Greenhow map accompanying the edition of his history issued in 1845.

78 This condition is revealed in Mühlenpfordt, Versuch einer getreuen Schilderung der Republic Mejico, etc.; Hannover, 1844.

79 Documentos para la Historia de Mexico, cuarta série, tomo V; Mexico, 1857, pp. 125-126.

80 Ibid., p. 132.

81 Venegas, A Natural and Civil History of California, vol. I, pp. 405-411.

82 Hittell, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 191-193, 219-221.

83 Venegas, Noticia de la California, tomo II, p. 343.

84 Venegas, A Natural and Civil History of California, vol. II, p. 48.

85 An Englishman named (probably) William Strafford, according to Bancroft; op. cit, vol. I, p. 444.

86 Venegas, Noticia de la California, tomo II, p. 370.

87 Ibid., p. 386.

88 Rudo Ensayo, Guiteras’ translation in Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. V, 1894, p. 124. Bandelier identified the author as Padre Nentwig, S. J., of Huassavas, eastern Sonora (Final Report of Investigations among the Indians, etc., part 1, in Papers of the Archæological Institute of America,” vol. III, 1890, p. 78). The name is written “John Nentuig” in a third-person reference in Guiteras’ translation; but an editorial footnote adds, “No doubt a printer’s mistake for Mentuig—L. F. F[lick]” (ibid., p. 191).

89 Noticias Estadisticas del Estado de Sonora, by José Francisco Velasco, Mexico, 1850, p. 124.

90 Theatro Americano, Descripcion General de los Reynos, y Provincias de la Nueva-España, y sus Jurisdicciones, Joseph Antonio de Villa-Señor, y Sanchez, segunda parte; Mexico, 1748, p. 392.

91 Op. cit., p. 133.