crop of wheat is 4,000 fanegas; corn about 1,500 fanegas. The castoroil bean grows here in the rankest luxuriance. Corn broom and wild cane attain a growth of fifteen to twenty-five feet high. There is little commerce, only store, and no mechanical industry, except perhaps one carpenter and blacksmith. Here is a very old church, one bell of which has the date of 1738 stamped on it. The church is hung with life-size portraits of saints and various tableaux of a religious character of no mean style of art. Here the erratic Count Raoussett de Boulbon and his misguided followers made their headquarters. Tubatama is eigh miles north 70 degrees east from El Atil. There are four flour mills here, all driven by water power, of which there is an abundance, considering the volume of water in the river. Many factories could be established here. There is but one store, owned by the president, Francisco Ochoa. The sierras in view from the top of the church are:

El Carrisal, two leagues northwest; El Sombreretillo, a conical hill, five feagues north; Sant Teresa, two miles, south 40 degrees west; Joanaqui, one mile northeast; San Juan, four miles, north 15 degrees east; Cerro del Chile, nine or ten leagues, north 26 degrees east; Babocomori a low hill, four or five leagues, north 25 degrees east. Encamped this day at Babocomori Ranch.

Next day, the 8th, passed the town of Saric, the last on the river. A colony of Chilenos settled here in 1858, then an old mission. It is situated on the right bank of the Altar River, nestled in a valley entirely surronded by hills. The population is 500, principally engaged in mining and agriculture. The river bottom in the vicinity is very fertile, with abundance of water for irrigation. Here the harvest of wheat is 2,000 fanegas; of corn say 1,000 fanegas; barley uncertain. For the supply of future demands the barley crops will be much increased here, as on all the river bottom. The usual vegetables are raised here, but fruit is scarce on account of the recent settlement of the place. The valley is cultivated for one mile below and three miles and a half above the town. In the vicinity of Saric there is a considerable growth of heavy mesquite, ash, cottonwood, walnut, and some oak fit for lumber. There are two flour mills here, one carpenter and wagonmaker's shop; one blacksmith shop, three shoemakers, four smelting furnaces (for silver ore), one silversmith, one saddler, and one e municipality is Don Barcelo, who, under instruction from the prefect, has set about repairing and changing the road in the vicinity. Part of this labor was performed when I passed, and the work was to proceed to completion at once.

I inclose also an itinerary of this route from Altar to Tuscon, in which and in the two orders appended* I have endeavored to give every object of interest a place, and to represent with fidelity the features and resources of the country with respect to the object of my mission. Having spent only four days at La Libertad, a few hours at Lobos Bay, and one day going and anther returning at Altar, and one day at Pitiquito, and riding on an average twenty-five miles a day during the trip, I hope my efforts may prove satisfactory-more so to the commanding general than they do do myself. My powers of description and command of language are but limited, and I am therefore unable to do justice to a subject deserving the labors of an abler pen. The rest of the routes are discredit in the itineraries. All is crude, undigested, principally for want of talent in this line, and also from

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* Itineraries omitted.

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