148 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



knowledge at all. Fortunately, I had an ample sup- 

 ply of water, but Kaweah had to be satisfied with a 

 promise payable fifteen miles farther on. He is an 

 intelligent fellow, and quickly grasps the bearing of 

 any indecision that may arise on the matter of trails. 

 On such occasions he watches every movement of 

 mine with almost human anxiety, and plainly re- 

 flects my own doubtful frame of mind. He had been 

 as pessimistic as I ever since we left the forks, but 

 brightened up when we found the road, and made 

 the best of a dry tussock of galleta while I ate my 

 lunch: and when we were ready he moved ofT with 

 alacrity and surprised me by ofTering to canter. 



We were now on a gradual descent, the southern 

 rim of the Mojave Desert. From time to time there 

 opened vistas of volcanic-looking ranges, with 

 glimpses of shimmering gray level or splashes of 

 pure white where dry lake-beds glistened with alkali. 

 For hundreds of miles this strange dead land extends 

 to north and east, known only to venturous pro- 

 spectors, a scientific man or two, a few surveyors, a 

 handful of miners; to the rest of the world as foreign 

 and unimaginable as if It were some territory of 

 Mars. Yet what wealth lies locked in that great deso- 

 lation, for it is, as indeed it looks, a veritable treas- 

 ure house of mineral. Looking out over it one easily 

 imagines "goblin or swart fairy of the mine" at 

 work on veins of wondrous ore under those gaunt 

 hills, ashy gray, livid purple, or dull red as if they 

 had been roasted. 



At last, five miles down the slope of a narrow val- 

 ley, I saw a speck that might be a building, perhaps 



