THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL 



53 



the washings from the mountains and is 

 almost as fine as flour. 



The long line of dunes at the north are just 

 as desolate, yet they are wonderfully beautiful. 

 The desert sand is finer than snow, and its 

 curves and arches, as it builds its succession of 

 drifts out and over an arroyo, are as graceful as 

 the lines of running water. The dunes are al- 

 ways rhythmical and flowing in their forms ; 

 and for color the desert has nothing that sur- 

 passes them. In the early morning, before the 

 sun is up, they are air-blue, reflecting the sky 

 overhead ; at noon they are pale lines of daz- 

 zling orange-colored light, waving and undulat- 

 ing in the heated air ; at sunset they are often 

 flooded with a rose or mauve color ; under a 

 blue moonlight they shine white as icebergs in 

 the northern seas. 



But neither the dunes nor the flats grow 

 vegetation of consequence. About the high 

 edges, up near the mountain slopes, you find 

 growths of mesquite, palo verde, and cactus ; 

 but down in the basin there are many miles 

 where no weed or grass breaks the level uni- 

 formity. Not even the salt-bush will grow in 

 some of the areas. And this is not due to 

 poverty of soil but to absence of water and 



