MESAS AND FOOT-HILLS 



197 



goes a further change. It slips imperceptibly 

 into a grass plain, stretching flat as far as the 

 eye can see, covered with whitened grass, and 

 marked by clumps of yuccas slowly growing 

 into yucca palms. No rocks, trees, cacti, or 

 grease-wood ; no primrose, wild gourd, or ver- 

 bena. Nothing but yucca palms, bleached 

 grass, blue sky, and lilac mountains. It is still 

 in kind a desert country, and it is still called a 

 mesa or table-land ; but its character is changed 

 into something like the great flat lands of Ne- 

 braska or the broken plateau country of Mon- 

 tana. 



In the spring, when the snows have melted 

 and the rains have fallen, these plains turn 

 green with young grass and are spattered with 

 great patches of wild flowers ; but the drouth 

 and heat of early summer soon fade the grasses 

 to a bright yellow, and in the fall the yellow 

 bleaches to a dead white. There is little wild 

 life left upon these plains. The bush-birds 

 need more cover than is to be found here, while 

 the ground-birds need more open roadway. 

 In the spring, when the prairie pools are filled 

 with water, there are geese and cranes in abun- 

 dance ; but they soon pass on north. These 

 great grass tracts were once the home of count- 



Orast 

 plains. 



Spring and 

 summer on 

 the plains. 



