THE LAND OF LITTLE RAIN 



go safely across that ghastly sink, yet every 

 year it takes its toll of death, and yet men 

 find there sun-dried mummies, of whom 

 no trace or recollection is preserved. To 

 underestimate one's thirst, to pass a given 

 landmark to the right or left, to find a dry 

 spring where one looked for running water 

 — there is no help for any of these things. 

 Along springs and sunken watercourses 

 one is surprised to find such water-loving 

 plants as grow widely in moist ground, but 

 the true desert breeds its own kind, each 

 in its particular habitat. The angle of the 

 slope, the frontage of a hill, the structure 

 of the soil determines the plant. South- 

 looking hills are nearly bare, and the lower 

 tree-line higher here by a thousand feet. 

 Cafions running east and west will have 

 one wall naked and one clothed. Around 

 dry lakes and marshes the herbage pre- 

 - 9 



