R. Zweifel 1953 Journal June 24 We traveled as far west as Minaca, camping by the Rio Papigochic. With the exception of a range of hills just west of Pedernales, the area between Cuakhtemor and Minaca is a vast plain, broken only by an occasional basaltic or limestone hill. The region is under intense cultivation so that it is difficult to get an impression of what the natural vegetational picture might have been. The hillsides support a scraggly growth of oak and piñon pine with little or no understory, due to overgrazing. Sufficient rain has not yet fallen to bring the oaks into leaf or start the annuables. June 25 The Rio Papigochic at Minaca (6300') averages about 30' wide and 1' deep. There is an occasional cottonwood and willow along the river, but the amount of shade given the stream is negligible. Baccharis is abundant on the stream bottom. We collected many garter snakes (T. sagrae megalocephalus and T. mifipunctatus), Bufo woodhousi and Rana pipiens in the river. The only lizards found were Cnemidophorus sackii (abundant in buckets of Baccharis in the washes) and a single Holbrookia maculata. June 26 We left the Minaca camp in the morning and drove south over good dirt roads to and a few miles past Pachera. The same "alti-plano" aspect is present throughout the whole region, so it was decided to