the people of the town. In the drier years the forage is re- stricted to those seepage tracts where the underground waters appear that have been absorbed higher up in piedmont depos- its. About the valley tracts at such times are dry slopes with only tiny patches of grass or scattered clumps of shrubs. We rode down through the pajonal, as it is called, a belt of yellow grass and scattered shrub that clothes the upper slopes of the mountains well above the settlements of Soncor, ‘Toconao, and San Pedro. The upper pastures extended from 7300 to 11,000 feet along our route (Fig. 1).
In a valley with such restricted resources the people natu- rally take advantage of every means to increase the pasture of dry years and the size of the flocks they maintain. This is illustrated by the situation at Toconao. Two leagues north of the settlement there is a ravine called ZApar, which the landholders of Toconao visit to cultivate such crops as they can. Near and far, in still higher situations, many other spots, each having a name of its own, are visited in the time of planting and harvest. Tributary to Toconao are three other such small planted areas—Jeri, Atite, Laccira.
In order to relieve the oases pastures and the irrigated alfalfa fields, sheep are driven up the ravines in flocks under the care of men, women, and even children, to graze for two or three days upon any scrap of green that can be found. Some of the Indians have two residences, one in the mountains and one on the plains below. They come down to the rivers and water- ing places of lower elevations to water the stock and then re- turn again for four or five days to the higher pastures. Below their watering places they may have even a third tract which some of them cultivate, and they may have temporary shelters at any one of these places.
When the shepherd is driven from the upper pajonales by the winter cold he has little choice whither to go. ‘The desert oases may be crowded, but thither his flock must ultimately be driven. The sole though temporary alternative is to seek out the neglected spots where tiny springs water a narrow ribbon of green. There his flock wanders from one clump of shrubbery to another or gathers in greedy rings about rare hummocks of grass.
