168 Life in the Open 



luting the eastern portion of California. A curse seems 

 to have fallen upon the very vegetation, which is weird 

 and fantastic, befitting the surroundings. At mid-day 

 the full force of the sun beats down upon rock and 

 sand, the buttes assume a thousand shapes and to the 

 eye are isolated castles which imagination garbs with 

 romance and mystery. The vision is distorted, a wavy, 

 nebulous mist rising from the ground, changing the form, 

 colour, and appearance of all objects. The shadows have 

 been driven from the land, and the glare of the sun is 

 like the blast of a furnace, if in summer ; yet the travel- 

 ler can but recognise the strange beauty of the region, 

 as nowhere can such pure colour or its complete absence 

 be seen. There is apparently no life where the white 

 sand sweeps on, but the drifting dunes have a weird life 

 of their own and are ever moving, changing like some 

 restless monster, and in the region of the Salton, reach- 

 ing up to the Sierra Madre, present the appearance of a 

 vast river flowing on eternally ; even when the wind is 

 in abeyance the sand is moving. All over its surface 

 are small currents rippling on, cutting furrows, carving 

 figures of strange design, the caprice of the wind. 



The scene when the wind, developed into a sand- 

 storm, sweeps down this vast pass, or el Cajdn, is beyond 

 description. The very earth appears to be lifted into the 

 air and carried on, a wall of copper-coloured cloud. With 

 even a full knowledge of this region it is difficult to select 

 one portion which has not at times some feature that ap- 

 peals to the imagination, yet is calculated to alarm the 



