, 7 6 Life in the Open 



north the herds migrate at different times of the year, 

 but in the south, as in Mexico, they are found in the 

 same general localities year after year. The young are 

 born in May or June. For a few days they are helpless, 

 and would be easily passed by as a stone or as brush, the 

 little one stretching itself out, laying its head flat, and 

 remaining perfectly quiet though a pack train passes 

 within a few feet unconscious mimicry that often saves 

 it from enemies. By all means hunt the antelope on 

 the California desert, and when it is found, let it pass. 

 The compensation is a glance at one of the greatest 

 deserts of the world, a vast dreamland, which some 

 winters is a bed of flowers, and in summer is often a 

 fiery furnace, a menace to life. 



A fascinating part of the desert is that portion near 

 Indio, where, in the present year, that spectre of this 

 desert, the " Salton sea," rose and filled the Salton basin 

 until the Indians, who took to the hills, could not see 

 across. This strange phenomenon threatened various 

 desert towns, and bridges were washed away. Boats were 

 built in Imperial in this year when the Rio Colorado 

 ran wild, broke through the intakes of the big irrigating 

 canal, and found its way by old trails and new river- 

 beds to the Salton sink, two hundred and eighty feet be- 

 neath the level of the sea. The last time I rode into 

 Indio the locusts were "stabbing the air with their 

 shrill alarms," and one could smell the heat. It was too 

 hot for originality, so I remarked to a native that it was 

 hot, it being 1 10 in the shade. He smiled and begged 



