CHAPTER V 

 LIGHT, AIR, AND COLOR 



THESE deserts, cut through from north to 

 south by a silent river and from east to west by 

 two noisy railways, seem remarkable for only a 

 few commonplace things, according to the con- 

 sensus of public opinion. All that one hears 

 or reads about them is that they are very hot, 

 that the sunlight is very glaring, and that there 

 is a sand-storm, a thirst, and death waiting 

 for every traveller who ventures over the first 

 divide. 



There is truth enough, to be sure, in the heat 

 and glare part of it, and an exceptional truth in 

 the other part of it. It is intensely hot on the 

 desert at times, but the sun is not responsible 

 for it precisely in the manner alleged. The 

 heat that one feels is not direct sunlight so 

 much as radiation from the receptive sands ; 

 and the glare is due not to preternatural bright- 

 ness in the sunbeam, but to there being no re- 

 liefs for the eye in shadows, in dark colors, in 

 77 



Popular 

 ideas of the 

 desert. 



Sunlight on 

 desert. 



