124 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



roof and walls being all of wire screening, and the 

 bed shaded from early morning sun by a broad-leafed 

 castor-bean plant. Everybody, of course, sleeps out 

 of doors, to escape the heat which during the day- 

 time fills the timbers and furniture of the house to 

 saturation point, to be slowly given off into the 

 cooler air during the night. 



Dress is cut to narrow limits, especially by those 

 who work outdoors and who are fortunate in having 

 the kind of skin that the sun tans instead of flaying. 

 I recall two young Swedes whom I met at a ranch 

 near Indio, who made quite an artistic effect in 

 brown and blue. Curly-headed, hatless, and encum- 

 bered only with "shorts" of blue denim, their skins 

 were of a fine, pie-crust brown that almost made my 

 mouth water, and their bright blue eyes were 

 matched to a shade by the hue of the brief cerulean 

 garments. 



My heavy sombrero was often the subject of re- 

 mark, the comment being that I must sufl"er from 

 its weight. True, I did so; but in spite of that I feel 

 sure that this thick, close felt, which thoroughly shuts 

 out the sun, is far better than the thin straw helmet 

 which is in general favor, and through which the 

 sun rays pass only half disarmed. To my half-pound 

 "cowboy" I owe it that, though constitutionally a 

 sun-hater and a lover of cloud and fog, I stand the 

 desert summer with much less discomfort than I 

 might reasonably expect. I offer my experience for 

 what it may be worth. 



The dusty street of Coachella yielded one or two 

 characteristic items, such as a humorous placard 



