1056 
48” west of Greenwich (Douglass), in 
San Juan County, Utah; six miles north- 
ward from the Arizona-Utah boundary 
line; four miles west of north from the 
summit of Navaho Mountain, and four 
miles above exit of the bridge canyon 
into the Colorado River at a point 16 
miles below its confluence with the San 
Juan. 
The most exact directions for reach- 
ing the bridge would be inadequate, so 
obscure and devious is the trail leading 
thereto ; hence the services of a guide are 
indispensable. Oljato, Utah, where guide 
and outfit for the final portion of the 
trip may be secured, is reached by two 
routes, between which there is little 
choice. On _the one hand, Gallup, New 
Mexico, on the Santa Fé line, may be 
made the starting point, whence one must 
go by stage 35 miles to Fort Defiance, 
Arizona, and from there by wagon or 
pack outfit 155 miles in a northerly direc- 
tion to Oljato. On the other hand, the 
traveler may leave a branch of the Den- 
ver & Rio Grande Railroad at Dolores, 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
Colorado, stage 81 miles to Bluff, Utah, 
and there secure horses for the remain- 
ing 60 miles to Oljato. The bridge is 
distant from Oljato only 37 miles, as the 
crow flies, but the trail passes over twice 
this distance, and three days will be re- 
quired for this last and most difficult 
part of the trip. A minimum of 18 days 
should be allowed for the round trip, 
whether the start be made from Gallup 
or Dolores, and the journey may be ac- 
complished at any time during the year 
save in winter. The trip is an extremely 
arduous and toilsome one, and would be 
fraught with danger to an inexperienced 
traveler, but under competent guidance 
may be accomplished with no special 
hazard, though hardships and inconveni- 
ences, and many of them, must be ex- 
pected. 
The government has already made of 
this natural wonder a national monu- 
ment, thus preserving it for all time 
against vandalism and commercialism 
and conserving it for the enjoyment 
of all. 
: THE MYSTERIES OF THE DESERT 
The following article is abstracted from “Across the Sahara,” by Hanns Vischer, 
one of the few explorers who have traversed Tripoli and the Sahara to Bornu: 
HERE are many hamadas in dif- 
: ferent parts of the Sahara. The 
Hamada el Homra, the red wil- 
derness, stands first among them all (see 
map, page 1047). 
The great range which bars the road 
to the south between the coast and Fez- 
zan rises here in one great, solid plateau 
of chalk to a height of 1,800 feet above 
the sea-level. It is a mighty sheet of 
rock falling off to the east, 360 miles 
from east to west and about 140 miles 
broad where the road crosses it. 
Except for a few narrow depressions, 
which lie like islands in the surrounding 
desolation, the surface is of solid rock, 
covered everywhere with small red stones 
and little bits of chalk, doubtless the 
remainder of former layers which have 
long ago disappeared. Heat and cold 
break up the surface, and the incessant 
wind carries away every loose particle of 
sand, finally piling it up into large dunes 
somewhere in the desert around. The 
surface is swept clean as with a broom, 
and the polishing action of the drifting 
sand gives the stones the appearance of 
being varnished. 
The hot air trembles over this shining 
surface, reflects the blue of the sky in 
every little depression of the ground, 
and distorts distant objects into fantastic 
shapes. Hollows in the rock appear as 
dim, blue lakes, and wandering camels 
on far-off rocks are transformed and 
magnified into the semblance of dark 
palm groves or strange - shaped hills. 
These are the games the hamada devils 
play to terrify and mislead the luckless 
caravans. For five days in the Hamada 
