62 



THE DESERT 



Nature 

 eternal. 



Return of 



desolation. 



may prove no less potent on the Colorado. 

 And sooner or later Nature will surely come to 

 her own again. Nothing human is of long du- 

 ration. Men and their deeds are obliterated, 

 the race itself fades ; but Nature goes calmly 

 on with her projects. She works not for man's 

 enjoyment, but for her own satisfaction and her 

 own glory. She made the fat lands of the 

 earth with all their fruits and flowers and fo- 

 liage ; and with no less care she made the des- 

 ert with its sands and cacti. She intended 

 that each should remain as she made it. When 

 the locust swarm has passed, the flowers and 

 grasses will return to the valley ; when man 

 is gone, the sand and the heat will come back 

 to the desert. The desolation of the kingdom 

 will live again, and down in the Bottom of 

 the Bowl the opalescent mirage will waver 

 skyward on wings of light, serene in its sol- 

 itude, though no human eye sees nor human 

 tongue speaks its loveliness. 



