THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN 



squeezed up out of chaos, chrome and ver- 

 milion painted, aspiring to the snow-line. 

 Between the hills lie high level-looking 

 plains full of intolerable sun glare, or nar- 

 row valleys drowned in a blue haze. The 

 hill surface is streaked with ash drift and 

 black, unweathered lava flows. After rains 

 water accumulates in the hollows of small 

 closed valleys, and, evaporating, leaves hard 

 dry levels of pure desertness that get the 

 local name of dry lakes. Where the moun- 

 tains are steep and the rains heavy, the pool 

 is never quite dry, but dark and bitter, 

 rimmed about with the efflorescence of al- 

 kaline deposits. A thin crust of it lies along 

 the marsh over the vegetating area, which 

 has neither beauty nor freshness. In the 

 broad wastes open to the wind the sand 

 drifts in hummocks about the stubby shrubs, 

 and between them the soil shows saline 

 4 



