36 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



ture of 103°, beneath a flourishing cluster of palms. 

 The spring is on the Reservation of the Agua 

 Caliente Indians, and the bath-house is operated for 

 their financial benefit. It is a new, crude affair, and 

 I confess I enjoyed more the quite primitive con- 

 trivances of a few years ago, when to the weird sen- 

 sation produced by the gulpings and gurglings of 

 the spring, which is a kind of quicksand in consist- 

 ency, was added the excitement of guessing whether 

 the rickety little hut would fall to pieces while you 

 were taking your bath or would spare you and col- 

 lapse over the next comer. This zest of adventure 

 has now been lost, as has also the healthful exercise 

 of pursuing the key all over the Reservation to its 

 lair in the capacious pocket of old Maria's wrapper 

 of antique, well-washed blue. 



The arm of desert that reaches southward from 

 the village ends in a long, winding ravine known as 

 " Palm Carion." Hundreds of palms grow here along 

 the course of a romantic stream, bending in dreamy 

 beauty over glassy reach and pool, or disposed in 

 natively artistic attitudes on the lower slopes of 

 the cafion walls. The combination of arrowy brook, 

 wild ravine, and tropic multitude of palms makes 

 the spot an enchanting one, and it never fails to 

 draw a tribute of surprised approval from even the 

 callous globe-trotter. In winter and spring a feature 

 of contrast is added when one may catch from some 

 high viewpoint the gleam of San Jacinto's snow. 

 Then it is a scene over which artists rave, the note 

 of white giving the last touch to a landscape already 

 crowded with powerful colors. 



