THE PALM OASES AND CANONS 35 



and weeks, or, for aught I know, months and years, 

 together, making the dayHght hours a misery, the 

 nights a howling nightmare. ReHef could generally 

 be found, however, by the margin of the pool, and 

 always enjoyment in noting the quaint, humorous 

 ways of the bird and animal life that resorted there. 



Four miles farther north, near the foothills of the 

 San Bernardino, are twin colonies, which have given 

 the place the name of "Two-Bunch Palms." Grow- 

 ing at the edge of a little bluff they are finely placed ; 

 and from among them one gets again vistas of those 

 two great peaks, always claiming the gaze, whether 

 serene under cloudless blue, hallowed with snow, or 

 darkly freighted with storm. Such things are unique 

 in American landscape, and send one's thoughts 

 wandering for comparisons to Ararat, Ruwenzori, 

 or famed Kashmir. 



I shall not soon forget one spring night when, be- 

 neath these palms, I was for once near the intoxi- 

 cation point of moonlight. For hours I lay unable 

 to sleep, while I was showered with moon arrows, 

 "passionately bright," that streamed from the pol- 

 ished fronds as they thrashed and undulated in a 

 screaming wind. It was the Valkyries' ride trans- 

 lated into moonlight, but outdoing Wagner, almost 

 beating the incoherencies of Strauss. 



The village of Palm Springs, ten miles to the 

 south, has some fame as a winter health resort. It 

 also offers the tourist, by comfortable accommo- 

 dations, the means of exploring with ease a few of 

 the palm communities. In the village there is a val- 

 uable medicinal spring, which rises, with a tempera- 



