should be so called. Yet there are great parts of the lands lying 

 within the true Desert Belt that are neither barren, sandy, 

 unvegetated, nor even particularly hot or arid. Most are covered 

 with stunted drought-resistant plants, some with bunched coarse 

 desert grasses, a great many with thick cactus groves, and not a 

 few with veritable forests of mesquite, palo verde, and other 

 plants both woody and herbaceous. Completely bare rock, stony, 

 or especially sandy areas are rare indeed. On the other hand, 

 there are large and frequent areas of all of these in the North 

 Scrub Belt, on the Colorado Platea, in the Wyoming Basin, in 

 the present province's northern regions, and even in the Sacra- 

 mento Valley. Among those in the Great Basin are some of the 

 worst desiertos in the world, and more or less the whole of this 

 province may, in fact, be so designated. See Glossary. 



UNEXPECTED DESERT ANIMALS 



l-i 



There is only one consideration that casts doubt on the classifi- 

 cation of the body of this province as being in the true Desert 

 Belt. This is its fauna. The faunas of deserts are among the most 

 highly specialized combinations of animals there are; so that, 

 while scrubland or even prairie and woodland types may occur 

 in a desert under favorable local conditions, true desert animals 

 are very seldom found outside deserts. The fauna of the Great 

 Basin is particularly provocative in this respect, for it is not 

 primarily or essentially a desert fauna but is made up mostly 

 of animals found in adjacent areas or of close relatives of these. 

 This fauna, moreover, is very extensive. 



Over 80 species of mammals are recorded from here, some 

 150 resident birds, 44 reptiles and 10 amphibians, about 30 fishes, 

 and a large number of insects. In the northern part — the Scab- 

 lands, the Blue Mountains, and the Snake River valley — there is 

 of course a less arid climate and more vegetation; and here we 



Right: Mono Lake on the western edge of the Great Basin 

 is a fabulous natural basin of ever evaporating alkaline 

 waters in which sundry strange mineral formations grow. 

 Below: A saline pool among the rocks of the 'Nevada desert. 

 Violent evaporation creates crystalline deposits. 



