40 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



a green caravanserai, and one that is patronized to 

 the full. 



These islands of shade are naturally the preferred 

 spots for camping-places by desert travellers, and 

 that they have been so from of old may be known 

 by the presence near them of unusual quantities of 

 the broken pottery that ever3rwhere amazes one by 

 tokens of the large populations that the desert once 

 supported. In places, mesquit thickets may still be 

 found that extend for miles, though near the rail- 

 way great stretches have been cleared for cultiva- 

 tion, and the wood, which makes excellent fuel, is 

 regularly sold in the towns and cities of the coast. 

 The aboriginal passion for rabbit would itself render 

 these thickets the pick of desert real estate to the 

 Indian, for they are always alive with bouncing bun- 

 nies, easy targets for his arrows or throwing-clubs. 



The mesquit Is also evidence of water, though not 

 necessarily of water near the surface, as In the case 

 of the palm. Far down below the burning surface 

 sands the great cable-like roots of the mesquit go 

 searching for the beds of water-bearing gravel, and 

 the plant that shows only a five-foot tangle of thorny 

 scrub aboveground may have roots running to ten 

 times that depth. As the sand is constantly heaped 

 higher about the mesquit by the wind, the plant 

 struggles to keep its head above the drift, and in 

 places, as at Seven Palms, mile-long dunes have 

 formed that show a mere fuzz of twigs aboveground 

 while your feet may be tripped by the great cylin- 

 drical roots, as thick as your leg and almost as hard 

 and rigid as iron, from which the sand has been 



