944 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



i)EC. 



of heavy Moods over the sand, and the rail- 

 road company has to make embankments, 

 running away back into the desert, to con- 

 duct the water into the coveied culverts un- 

 der the track at regular distances. 



I'f) JIubei:—\ great big Indian sits on the 

 ground, riglit out of the car window. He 

 has two bows and a great lot of arrows. 

 His hair is black, and comes down almost 

 to his waist. There are lots of Indians 

 here. Some real big boys don't wear any 

 pants, and not much of any thing else. I 

 should think they would be real ashamed to 

 go roimd town that way. Their houses are 

 made of weeds that look like cornstalks. 

 The Indians all sit on the ground, instead of 

 on chairs and benches. 



OENEKAL NOTES. 



The view of the desert after leaving Mam- 

 moth Tank (Cal.) is beyond any thing that 

 I supposed could be presented to the human 

 eye. Off to the south it must, I think, be 

 slightly dish-shaped, for no view of t)cean or 

 desert either ever gave me such a glimpse of 

 boundless expanse. It does not seem as if 

 even the fastest railroad tiain could reach 

 the horizon in a whole day of steady run. 

 And now, dear reader, the Colorado desert 

 gives place to about 60 miles of ocean-bot- 

 tom. It is simply black or leather-colored 

 mud, full of cracks, just like the mud in 

 any of our ponds, and this no miles is all 

 below the level of the ocean— in some places 

 even 2(56 feet below^ It was, without ques- 

 tion, once the ocean-bed. The reason it is 

 not now, is, that the dry atmosphere and 

 dry ground take all the rainfall as soon, al- 

 most, as it comes. Great gullies are wash- 

 ed out in it by the rains; but before the 

 water gets to tiie lowest point it is all taken 

 up by an arid soil. The ground looks W'et 

 from the rain last night, and in some pits 

 it stands in puddles, but nothing grows in 

 this red mud, of any account. 



Now, to cap the climax of my story, this 

 ocean-bed is the spot where the celebrated 

 mirage of California is always to be seen 

 when the sun shines ; and even as I write, I 

 see out of the window the old ocean-bed 

 away in the distance, shining like silver, 

 with trees, bushes, and the shore line, with 

 several mountains reflected on its surface. 

 One might readily believe it to be the ghost 

 of the past. The sun has now come out, and 

 its image, and also the mountains, are re- 

 rtected on it. It has been explained as the 

 reflection of the bright sky in the alkali and 

 sand ; but the soil near the track shows now 

 none of either. As the train moves, the 

 water goes along with it, but it remains 

 away back in the same track. Where it 

 unites with the sky they look exactly alike, 

 and in that case the trees and bushes stand 

 up in the sky, with the reflections showing 

 right under them. 



At my riglit is a range of mountains with 

 a great bank of clouds resting on them, like 

 a soft pillow. On the left are the tallest 

 mountains I have seen, with their peaks 

 reaching up through the clouds. At this 

 ijoint, Salton, another track comes in, and a 

 locomotive is just now^ in the midst of the 



'■ phantom lake '' — pretty tangible evidence 

 that the " wetness " is a myth. 



The station just past gets its name from 

 the fact that they make salt from the scrap- 

 ings of the surface of the soil, and this may 

 suggest something in regard to the mirage. 

 The sun's rays catch the particles of salt in 

 the soil, and the reflection, as it shows from 

 a distance, looks like water. As I look 

 behind and see even yet the islands and 

 long strips of land, through and beyond the 

 waters, the thought wells up, "• How won- 

 drous are thy works, O God ! ' 



The clouds are now sliding off the moun- 

 tain-tops, and are slipping down their sides. 

 Little bits of clouds are scattered here and 

 there, for all the world like the cotton the 

 people were picking a few days ago. 



To J luher.— There 1 it is just as I expect- 

 ed ; the clouds have got caught on the rough 

 rocky points, and left the mountains all 

 stuck up with bits of cloud ; and then, to fix 

 it all, the sun has come through the clouds, 

 and makes all the little cloud-scraps shine 

 like fire, and the old mountain looks as if he 

 were rigged out in his " Sunday-best," to go 

 to a party. How I should like to climb up 

 and put my hands into those bright clouds ! 

 See if I don't some day. A lady at my left 

 says the folks here sometimes " wash "their 

 hands " in the clouds when they come down 

 low enough. It seems very certain, any 

 way, that the clouds and mountains are on 

 very friendly terms with each other. The 

 clouds are settling down over the mountains 

 now, all around us, and the people here say 

 it is going to rain. 



There ! something else has happened. 

 While I was watching the clouds and moun- 

 tains, wishing 1 could see how it was that a 

 cloud rained on a mountain-summit, all at 

 once I heard a sound of rushing waters; 

 and down a little torrent came, right toward 

 the track. A cloud had let go its damp bur- 

 den, and then I knew how the rain cut 

 those gullies. The water was full of sand 

 and gravel. Now, then, this process, if re- 

 peated, will, in time, make all the hills and 

 mountains a level plain. The clouds, moun- 

 tains, sunshine, are all at work, and man is 

 soon to direct them to do his will. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Dear reader, I am nearing my journey's 

 end. This has been a wonderful week to 

 me — this week in a Pullman car. I can 

 hardly say I have been tired one minute, 

 nor have I once wished the trip were over. 

 Shall I tell you something of this palace-car 

 home? 1 have a little table by an open win- 

 dow, and pleasant neighbors. They have 

 all been pleasant, and I feel that God's pres- 

 ence has been with me also. With this, all 

 things are pleasant ; but without it the 

 world would have little real pleasure for me. 

 On my little table are the book I have ex- 

 tracted from, and the printed schedule of the 

 trip, giving name of all stops and hour of 

 arrival, so that, with a correct timepiece 

 (Waterbury, for instance), I can, without 

 asking anybody, tell the name of any town 

 and its points of interest. If I get faint be- 

 fore breakfast time, because I have been in 

 the habit of having breakfast very early at 



