INTRODUCTORY 9 



range Is the usual deep reddish-brown; but under 

 diffused sunlight I have seen it pale down to milky 

 white, a tone that one would never suppose could 

 come within its scope. Breaking of light-rays by 

 vegetation is not the cause, as it might be elsewhere; 

 for plant-life is here at its lowest volume, a joke, 

 almost a myth, like a Chinaman's beard. It im- 

 presses one oddly, this wholesale bleaching away 

 of essential color. Withered, ghastly, monstrously 

 old, the mountains seem like geologic wraiths, such 

 mountains as the ghosts of moon-men may wander 

 among in the ashy lunar world. 



The great stretches of level desert also show some 

 diversity of color, arising partly from absence or 

 presence (and kind) of vegetation, and partly from 

 difference of surface material. But it is only when 

 seen in great extent, from a good elevation, that 

 atmosphere and grouping of shades lend enchant- 

 ment. In near view, seen from slightly above the 

 level, a vast drab, tinged usually with olive, is the 

 general hue. The olive comes from an infinite stipple 

 of low shrubs, so uniform in spacing — for each plant 

 jealously guards its little territory — as to show no 

 cloudings of heavier and sparser growth. The effect 

 is about as lively and original as fifty square miles 

 of tweed in "pepper-and-salt mixture." But though 

 not themselves in the least degree stimulating to 

 fancy, these dull plains have value as foil and fore- 

 ground to the color display of ever-present hills and 

 mountains. And when, as often may be the case, 

 the close foreground is laid in blocks of that deep, 

 powerful red, the landscape, though bare of any 



