Amusements 31 



Spring gets into its blood; you will hardly match 

 those silky cups of purple or cerise in greenhouses 

 of millionaires. The ocotillo, too — where will you 

 find anything floral that is finer in its way than that 

 flaming scarlet tongue? It is the desert's own fierce 

 flower, not on any account to be missed, and well 

 woilh the ride down to Deep Caiion, even if the 

 ride showed you nothing else worth your notice, 

 which would be strange indeed." 



There is jilenty of interesting matter here, too, 

 for those to whom animal life appeals. For bird 

 study, especially, this locality off"ers exceptional 

 facilities, for the San Gorgonio Pass is the great 

 migration highway for a large region, and the Palm 

 Springs oasis, lying at the foot of the pass, forms a 

 natural stopping-place for the small travelers. It is 

 for this reason a favorite station for bird-men, as it 

 is for naturalists in general. Beetle-men and 

 butterfly-men, mouse-and-gopher-men, and devotees 

 of all sorts of zoological ramifications with alarm- 

 ing names spend rapturous days in Our Araby, 

 collecting, studying, and classifying, with ever in 

 view the thrilling chance of coming upon something 

 new— a kangaroo-rat with tail measurement three 

 millimeters greater than any yet recorded in the 

 halls of science, or some phenomenal development 

 of the maxillary arch in a short-nosed pocket-mouse. 

 Such triumphs have in the past shed lustre upon 



*Under the heading of Flora and Fauna will be found a 

 list of all the desert plants likely to be observed, with 

 brief descriptions which will aid in identifying them. 



