214 



THE DESERT 



be seen. You will never know the vast reach 

 of the deserts nntil yon see them from a point 

 of rock ten thousand feet in air. Then you are 

 standing on the Kim of the Bowl and can see 

 the yellow ocean of sand within and the blue 

 ocean of water without. The ascent to that 

 high point is, however, not easy, especially if 

 undertaken from the desert side. But nothing 

 could be more interesting in quick change and 

 new surprise than the rise from the hot waste 

 at the bottom to the cold white-capped peaks of 

 the top. It is not often that you find moun- 

 tains with their feet thrust into tropic sands 

 and their heads thrust into clouds of snow. 



Before you start to climb, before you reach 

 the foot of the mountains, you are struck by 

 the number of dry washes leading down from 

 the sides and gradually losing themselves in the 

 sands. As the eyes trace these arroyos up the 

 mountain-side they are seen to turn into green 

 streaks and finally, near the peak, into white 

 streaks. You know what that means and yet 

 can hardly believe that those white lines are 

 snow-banks packed many feet deep in the can- 

 yons ; that from them run streams which 

 lower down become green lines because of the 

 grasses, bushes, and trees growing on their 



