The Heart of the Desert 177 



to differ with me : "It was cool ; yesterday it was 

 hot, 130 in the shade." 



In the vicinity of Indio one finds a palm forest, one 

 of the things worth seeing ; a forest of tall fan palms, 

 which appear to be indigenous to the locality, reaching 

 down into Lower California. They are found growing 

 in the narrow heated canons, their roots in the hot seep- 

 ing water ; others out in the wash of the canon's mouth 

 splendid examples of a desert forest which appeal to 

 the imagination and the lover of the picturesque. Not 

 long in the past this entire area has been under water ; 

 an old sea-beach may be traced a long distance from 

 near Yuma to Indio, and a water line can be seen along 

 the base of the mountains that form the barrier between 

 the desert and the garden spot of Southern California. 



Nearer the delta the land is being reclaimed, and 

 ranches and farms laid out, and with the Midas-like 

 touch of water the desert sands turn to gold; and where 

 once sandy dunes drifted to and fro, vast fields of grain 

 lie rippling in the sun, telling of the desert reclaimed 

 and homes where some one may yet sing with Byron, 



Oh! that the desert were my dwelling-place 

 With one fair spirit for my minister 



That I might all forget the human race 

 And, hating no one, love but only her. 



