388 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



a bush of any consequence anywhere near, though they are common 

 enough near Indio. Frink's Spring has no water within six miles ; 

 and at Cactus, strange to say, there is hardly a plant in sight. 



The animal life in the desert is meager in the extreme, and in many 

 places there is none at all. Along one stretch of twenty miles, where 

 there are no trees of any size, the woodpeckers and little wrens have 

 made their nests in holes dug in the telegraph-poles. It is strange 

 that the habits of these birds have not been modified to suit the sur- 

 roundings, but they have probably come into the country since the 

 poles were erected. Snakes are in places comparatively common, but 

 still, one might travel for two or three days and not see any. Rat- 

 tlesnakes live under the stones, and resemble the ground so closely 

 that they are hard to distinguish. Lizards delight in the hot, sandy 

 wastes, and at all times are darting hither and thither with the rapid- 

 ity of light. In places are regular beaten tracks made by them along 

 one side of the rails. Horned toads, really lizards (Phrynosoma cor- 

 nutum), are common, and so near the color of the sand that it is almost 

 impossible to recognize them except when running, and utterly impos- 

 sible to catch them. Three or four kinds of beetles are common in 

 places. Cryptoglossa verrucosa, Cysteodema armata, and Endrotes 

 ventricostis, are the most common. The first has such hard elytra 

 that they can almost be stepped on without fear of crushing them. 

 They generally take refuge from the sun on the shady side of the 

 rails, and the tracks left by them are plainly visible. Great numbers 

 are found dead on the sand, and it would seem that the heat of the 

 sun and of the sand combined was too much for them. The much- 

 dreaded scorpion and the centiped are also found, but are not common. 



The vegetation of the desert is, of course, of a peculiar character. 

 For about twenty miles near Indio, the mesquite (Prosopis jidiflora) 

 is very common. It forms a tree twenty or thirty feet high, with a 

 very rough bark, scraggy branches, and sharp thorns. The leaves are 

 like those of the acacia, and the flowers yellow, in long racemes. The 

 pods succeeding the flowers are long and crooked, and are used by 

 the Indians for food. The branches are often burdened by huge 

 masses of mistletoe, sometimes as large as a barrel, and serve as nest- 

 ing-places for birds. The mesquite-wood is excellent for fires, and 

 the Indians cut and stack it along the road to sell to the company for 

 fuel. 



Cacti are common over a large part of the desert, and the brilliant 

 crimson and yellow flowers serve to enliven the otherwise desolate 

 wastes. Larrea Ifexicana, the creosote-plant, is also common. It is 

 so called on account of its peculiar odor. The leaves are small and 

 sticky, the flowers yellow, and the seeds are covered with a whitish 

 fuzz. Nothing will eat it, it is unfit for burning, and it is hard to tell 

 what place it fills in the economy of nature. The ParJcinsonia Tor- 

 reyana is another peculiar desert-plant. The Spaniards call it " palo 



