MOUNTAIN-BARRIERS 



229 



mined to maintain just so much of desert with 

 just so much of its hardy, stubborn life. When 

 she is pleased to enhance it or abate it she will 

 do so ; but in her own good time and way. 



Come to the eastern side of the peak and 

 look out once more upon the desert while yet 

 there is time. The afternoon sun is driving 

 its rays through the passes like the sharp-cut 

 shafts of search-lights, and the shadows of the 

 mountains are lengthening in distorted silhou- 

 ette upon the sands below. Yet still the San 

 Bernardino Range, leading off southeast to the 

 Colorado River, is glittering with sunlight at 

 every peak. You are above it and can see over 

 its crests in any direction. The vast sweep of 

 the Mojave lies to the north ; the Colorado 

 with its old sea-bed lies to the south. Far 

 away to the east you can see the faint forms of 

 the Arizona mountains melting and mingling 

 with the sky ; and in between lie the long pink 

 rifts of the desert valleys and the lilac tracery 

 of the desert ranges. 



What a wilderness of fateful bufferings! 

 All the elemental forces seem to have turned 

 against it at different times. It has been swept 

 by seas, shattered by earthquakes and volca- 

 noes, beaten by winds and sands, and scorched 



The desert 

 from the 

 mountain- 

 top. 



The great 

 extent of the 

 desert. 



The fateful 

 wilderness. 



