36 THE GREAT BASIN. 



many years dormant, until the favorable time shall come 

 for them to start into life. Some of them have flowers of 

 exquisite beauty. 



I have alluded to the atmospheric effects. With a 

 cloudless sky there is, nevertheless, a great variety of 

 hue and effect produced by the play of light upon the 

 dust. During midday and in the heat of summer, a dus- 

 ty haze may prevade the landscape, shutting out distant 

 views. The nights are always cool and clear, and sunrise 

 and sunset are marked by a display of colors in the 

 sky, near the horizon, unlike anything ever seen in 

 moister lands. These are due to the effects of fine dust 

 in the air, scattering or decomposing the light. 



But violent storms occur there as elsewhere. There 

 are sometimes fierce water-spouts — cloud-bursts they 

 are called — which are very local and very intense, an 

 enormous volume of water falling in a very short time. 

 This, gathering into the valleys, sometimes produces 

 very destructive torrents. Then, too, there are wind 

 storms, with all of their varied phenomena, sometimes 

 raising clouds of dust and sand, like the sand-storm of 

 the Sahara. 



On the broader deserts and during certain seasons of 

 the year, there are numerous small whirlwinds, too mild 

 to be of any danger whatever but carrying up pillars of 

 dust into the air to a great height, which move over the 

 plain, sometimes swiftly but more often slowly, produc- 

 ing a weird, indescribable effect. A dozen are sometimes 

 in sight at once. 



In other places, there are winds blowing continually 

 in the same direction, through wind gaps in the moun- 

 tains along the western side. I show you pictures of 

 dunes of drifting sand, more than 600 feet high. The 

 crossing of these is wearisome beyond description. In 

 other places the driving sand has polished the rocks. 



I have said that there were two ancient lakes greater 



