ttle mining town of Zapuri, in the
neighbourhood of which were some caves I wanted to investigate.

After a day's journey we turned westward and got beyond the range
of the fires. Turkeys were seen close to our camp and appeared
plentiful; I also saw a giant woodpecker, but just as I got ready
to shoot, it flew away with a great whirr of its wings. We soon
began to descend, and after a long and fatiguing day's travel over
cordons and sierras, and through a wide barranca surrounded by
magnificent towering mountains, we arrived, late in the afternoon,
at Zapuri. The superintendent of the mine, to whom I brought a letter
of introduction from the owner of the property, received us with
cordial hospitality. Here the climate was splendid; the nights were
just pleasantly cool, the mornings deliciously calm; they were all
the more enjoyed after the windy weather of the sierra.

Immediately upon my arrival here I had a chance, through the courtesy
of the superintendent, to secure a Mexican and some strong mules,
which took Mr. Taylor over to Parral on his way back to the United
States. Mr. Hartman remained with the expedition two months longer,
to join me again the following year for a few months. I also got a
guide for myself and made an excursion to the caves in the neighbouring
barrancas. After we had gone some ten miles over very bad roads, we
came to the home of an old Tarahumare woman, who was reputed to be very
rich. Knowing Mexican exaggeration in this regard, I computed that the
twelve bushels of pesos she was supposed to have hidden might amount,
perhaps, to $50 or $100 Mexican money. Whatever her wealth was, she
showed it only in a lavish display of glass beads around her scrawny
neck; they must have weighed at least six or eight pounds. But then,
her homestead was composed mainly of four or five substantial circular
store-houses.

The wealth of the Tarahumare consists in his cattle. He is well
off when he has three or four head of cattle and a dozen sheep and
goats. There is one instance where a man had as many as forty head
of cattle, but this was a rare exception. They rarely keep horses,
and never pigs, which destroy their cornfields; and are believed,
besides, to be Spaniards (_Gachupines_). Pork, though sometimes eaten,
is never sacrificed. No tame turkeys are kept, but occasionally the
people have some hens, and in rare cases a family may keep a turtle
dove or a tame quail. When a man has oxen, he is able t