The Heart of the Desert 171 



retreating to the canons, seemingly utterly driven out 

 by the fierce rays of the sun. 



No one can deny the charm of such a region, and the 

 impulse to move on and into the heart of the desert is 

 often almost irresistible, the strange buttes ever beckon- 

 ing on. The vegetation of the desert, while forbidding, 

 has its attractions. What might be considered the very 

 heart of the desert, as the alkali plain between Yuma 

 and the Sierra Madre, is apparently divested of vegeta- 

 tion, but careful examination shows something growing 

 in the gullies, and even where the sand is tossed like 

 snow, a grass appears fighting for supremacy, while a 

 few bushes struggle upward. On the edge of the desert, 

 in canons which at times reflect the summer heat like a 

 furnace and through which the superheated air rushes, 

 are seen lofty palms, their roots deep in the rocky chan- 

 nel that the winter rains have made. In some of the 

 canons the palms grow in great numbers. Apparently 

 the seeds are swept down on to the lower levels, and 

 where the canon opens out and becomes a wide valley 

 groves of lofty palms are seen, among the most pictur- 

 esque and beautiful forms of the desert. 



It is doubtful if one can make a strong enough plea 

 for the desert to induce people to visit it. Thousands 

 cross its very heart every year to reach Southern Cali- 

 fornia ; indeed one cannot reach the Pacific by land 

 except by the desert route ; but the average tourist fails 

 to see it, as the railroad has so arranged that the passage 

 of this dry Styx is made by night; thus its varied 



