Our tents were pitched on an old trinchera.

Cut deep into a rough ledge not far off was the rough carving of a serpent, sixty feet long, that must have been left here by a race antecedent to the Tarahumares.

And a little further off we came upon the ruins of a modern Tarahumare house.

It seems as if the Indians must extract a living out of the rocks and stones; though when we got down into the barranca and into the ravines we came upon patches of land that could be cultivated; and there were some small areas of pasture, although extremely precipitous.
The first thing to do was to despatch the guide into the valleys and gorges below, which from our camping place could not be seen, only surmised, that he might persuade some Tarahumares to act as carriers on an excursion I contemplated making through the region.

In a couple of days a party was made up, consisting, besides myself, of Mr.Taylor, the guide, two Mexicans, and five Tarahumares with their gobernador.