CHAPTER XX 



A DESERT RIDE: BLYTHE TO COACHELLA VALLEY 



Viva Mexico I — Homeward bound — A hard choice — A dirty trick 



— A sunrise vision — The Ironwood Mountains — Desert pave- 

 ment — Palens and Cockscombs — Lack of the humane element 



— Entering the Chuckwallas — Trail troubles — Moonlight and 

 mystery — Corn Springs — Picture-writings — Hotel de Corn 

 Springs — More trail problems — The heart of the Chuckwallas 



— The desert and music — Quite at sea — Lost: The Red Cloud 

 Mine — More guessing — At last a road — A long night march — 



— Kaweah discouraged but game — Night company — Faint 

 yet pursuing — Eureka! a sign-post — Dawn: peace and war — 

 Shafer's Well: rest and water — Mecca and civilization — The 

 desert in review — Still the Sphinx — The riddle unread. 



IN reaching Blythe three sides of my proposed 

 circuit had been completed, and I now turned 

 westward toward the Coachella Valley where it be- 

 gan. There was no difficulty about waking early, 

 this sixteenth of September, for the Mexican half of 

 Blythe was up at dawn and making no secret of its 

 patriotic fervor. However, we had only a short 

 march before us for the day, so made a late start, 

 spending the morning in a round of gaiety and gun- 

 powder, and joining whole-heartedly in the shouts 

 of Viva Mexico ! that all but drowned the strains of 

 the Mexican National Hymn — a fine stirring air 

 even when screeched on a broken-winded phono- 

 graph. 



A very few miles took us beyond the limit of the 

 cultivated land : then at a slight rise we were again 

 on the characteristic wide mesa broken by isolated 

 mountain ranges. Far in the south the pinnacles of 



