THE PALM OASES AND CANONS 27 



mentioned that, certain of my belongings having been 

 picked up some miles away where the flood had car- 

 ried them, It had been supposed that I was drowned. 

 By way of congratulation they stayed to help with 

 the beans. It was fifty years, they said, since so 

 heavy a storm had visited the desert, and news 

 that came later of broken dams and loss of life in 

 the adjoining coast region made this seem likely to 

 be true. 



Just to the south of Palm Springs there is an im- 

 posing gash in the mountain wall which goes by the 

 name of Tahqultz Cafion. The stream which de- 

 bouches here rises on Tahqultz Peak, a subsidiary 

 summit of San Jacinto Mountain and whispered to 

 be the private eyry of Tahqultz himself. The cafion 

 is remarkable for magnlfi.cent cliffs, forming at the 

 mouth a cirque with walls rising sheer for hundreds 

 of feet. This titanic Colosseum makes a superb 

 effect by morning light, when the vast, crater-like 

 shadow is outlined by grim though sunlit rock-bolts 

 that guard the towering gateway. It would be a 

 worthy portal to Avernus, and when Tahqultz has his 

 waterfall in full blast a quite infernal uproar reigns 

 in the confined place, while the great southern cliff, 

 acting as sounding-board, projects a full-mouthed 

 roar upon the ears of the villagers of Palm Springs. 

 Twelve miles to the southeast is Magnesia Spring 

 Canon (or, to give it the old Indian name, Pah- 

 wah'-te, signifying, "the drinker"), where I made 

 camp for a couple of weeks in early spring. It is 

 different from the caflons already described, being 

 a long, winding gallery instead of the usual wide- 



