As far as the first of the large barrancas was concerned, near the top of which we were standing, we could for some little distance follow its windings toward the west, and its several tributaries could be made out in the landscape by the contours of the ridges.  Barranca de Cobre is known in its course by different names.  Near the mine of Urique (the Tarahumare word for barranca), it is called Barranca de Urique, and here its yawning chasm is over 4,000 feet deep.  Even the intrepid Jesuit missionaries at first gave up the idea of descending into it, and the Indians told them that only the birds knew how deep it was.  The traveller as he stands at the edge of such gaps wonders whether it is possible to get across them.  They can in a few places be crossed, even with animals if these are lightly loaded, but it is a task hard upon flesh and blood.

It was in these barrancas, that I was to find the gentile (pagan) Indians I was so anxious to meet.  From where I stood looking at it the country seemed forgotten, lonely, untouched by human hand.  Shrubs and trees were clinging to the rocky brows of the barrancas, and vegetation, could be seen wherever there was sufficient earth on the mountain and the sides of the ravines; but, on the whole, the country looked rather barren and lifeless.

Still, it did not take us long to find traces of human beings.  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.  Bundles weighing from forty to seventy-five pounds were placed on the backs of the Indians and the Mexicans; even the guide took a small pack, though it would have been beneath the dignity of the gobernador to take a load upon himself.  But his company was valuable on account of his great influence with his people.

It was an exceedingly interesting excursion of several days’ duration.  Owing to the presence of the gobernador the Indians received us well.  Nobody ran away, though all were extremely shy and bashful, and the women turned their backs towards us.  But after a while they would offer us beans from a pot cooking over the fire.  They served them in earthenware bowls with a couple of tortillas (corn cakes).  In another vessel, which they passed around among us, they offered the flavouring, coarse salt and some small chile (Spanish peppers), which vegetable is cultivated and much relished by the Tarahumares.