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is a natural forest of California fan-palms which has been 

 described as one of the most enchanting in the United States. 

 The "creek" becomes a "dry wash" on the desert plain on which 

 is Palm Springs, in the mountain valley of San Gorgonio Pass. 



The Date Farms of Indio and Mecca 



Before leaving the desert valley of the south (the Colorado) 

 to cross the Little San Bernardino Mountains to the Mojave 

 Desert a "call" should be made at the date farms at Indio. As 

 has been before remarked, the desert is most abject. Yet the 

 date palm requires a large amount of water. Streams which 

 tear down the mountain slopes with great violence and large 

 volume when storms break among the clouds of the sierra peaks 

 cease to be streams soon after reaching the parched desert plain 

 where the waters sink into the porous soil. What were floods 

 in mountain canyons are now cool fresh waters deep beneath 

 the surface, and wherever these break forth as springs or are 

 tapped by wells there the palm tree finds a genial habitat. 

 Water and bright sunshine are necessary to these tropical trees. 

 The high temperature of the torrid summers, with underground 

 mountain waters, with the ingenuity of man, have made pos- 

 sible the 119 varieties of dates which this modern Garden of 

 Eden in the desert produces. Citrus fruits, olives, figs and nuts 

 abound, and tropical dates, unexcelled in the world, give to 

 this region a unique distinction. 



Palm Springs and San Gorgonio Pass 



Pause at Palm Springs most famous desert resort in the 

 world for dinner at a palatial hotel and a bath in the naturally 

 heated mountain underground water, and bid adios to the 

 parched desert, the cacti, the horned toads, and the marvellous 

 wild flowers that are sustained by waters that we cannot see, 

 and hasten to cross the Little San Bernardino Mountains, noting 

 the 17-foot bore and aqueduct by which water from the Colo- 



