Mrs. Solórsano was an Indian herb doctor, and a feature of the work during the summer of 1929 had been to obtain specimens and information to cover the ethnobotany of the tribe. Further specimens were obtained in the summer of 1930 by Mrs. Dionisia Mondragón and Miss Marta J. Herrera, daughter and granddaughter of Mrs. Solórsano, and these were all identified by Mr. C. V. Morton, of the National Herbarium. This section gives the treatment for curing some 60 different ailments with these herbs and by other curious means. It forms a nucleus for making comparative studies in Indian medicine.
At the end of January, 1931, Mr. Harrington left for California for the purpose of continuing his studies in this region, this time specializing on the Esselen and Antoniano Indians in the southern part of Monterey County. Taking the specimens of San Juan Bautista plants with him and arriving in wild-flower season, a thorough collecting of plants was rewarded with a great mass of information which further elucidated much of the San Juan plant material. This collecting was done in several places in southern Monterey County and simultaneously in San Benito County. Seeds used for food were actually made up into the food product to get the primitive process, and the same method was followed in the study of medicines.
Along with the plants the field of ethnozoology was thoroughly covered and practically all the animals known to these Indians were identified. Specimens were obtained, especially of birds, which proved to be the most difficult field for identification in the collecting of animal names, and the skins were identified by the division of birds of the National Museum. Eight different kinds of snakes were known by name and identified.
One of the rarest features of the work was the obtaining of a number of old Indian place names in the Old Esselen country, the western tributary of the Salinas River known as the Arroyo Seco. A study of the place names resulted in the discovery that the Esselen were not a coastal but an inland people, inhabiting the Arroyo Seco and a section of the Salinas River and centered about Soledad Mission. They were one of the smallest tribes in California, and the name properly begins with an h; they were known in the San Juan Bautista from all that section of California. The expedition went from Monterey to the Aguage de Martin and from there climbed the mountain. Some 40 exposures were made of the various rocks connected with the ceremonies and the springs and camps, and several hundred pages of notes were taken down in California Spanish from Don Angel and others dealing with the history of these ceremonies and the life of Mariana and Joaquin Murrieta. On the way back to the coast the Cruz Cervantes ranch was visited, where Murrieta and Mariana were equipped by Don Cruz for starting their war against the Americans.