94 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



in a hollow where a spring of alkaline water breaks 

 out and spreads a white, unwholesome efflorescence 

 among the arrowweed. It is one of the drawbacks of 

 desert travel that the water, scarce at best, is gen- 

 erally charged with substances that not only impair 

 the thirst-quenching quality, but may have ill re- 

 sults on the health. One of the minor effects of alka- 

 linity (which is an almost universal fault of desert 

 waters) is a swelling and cracking of the lips, and I 

 have known hardy cowboys, inured for years to 

 desert life, to be disfigured, hardly able to speak, 

 and positively refusing cigars, after a week or two 

 of water unusually "tough." I came near serious 

 illness myself, from this cause, when I camped here 

 for some weeks earlier in the year: yet this is com- 

 paratively good water, as desert water goes. 



There is another black mark against Seven Palms 

 — the inhuman wind that constantly blows here all 

 through spring and summer. After half a dozen vis- 

 its to the place I fail to recall one day uncursed by 

 that harrying wind. Ordinary wind I can stand; a 

 breeze is often refreshing; but this sort of thing is 

 frankly beastly. It seems a sort of horseplay, aggra- 

 vating, useless, simply silly. 



On this occasion, though the day had been de- 

 cently quiet, toward evening the old nonsense began. 

 The palms took up the regulation scream and rattle 

 that had blasted so many a night's sleep for me, and 

 by sundown you would have thought the Valkyries 

 were in full career. I picketed Kaweah on the most 

 sheltered patch of salt-grass I could find, and passed 

 the evening in my cowboy's cabin with a phono- 



