Amusements 35 



with no open season. 1 said strictly, but must add 

 — that it jvere strictly! for it is but too certain 

 that since the appearance of the automobile (the 

 worst foe of wild game everywhere) on the desert, 

 the sheep have fallen victims to illicit shooting to 

 a terrible extent. Parties of "sports" — the fellows 

 who bear the same relation to sportsmen that 

 "gents" do to gentlemen — lolling at ease in high- 

 powered cars, now invade every part of the desert 

 where a road leads to some rem.ote mine or pros- 

 pect, and blaze away at anything that moves, in 

 mere intoxication of blood-lust: with result of 

 many a wounded animal, ram or ewe just as it 

 happens, dragging itself into some haunt inacces- 

 sible to man, there to lingeringly perish: — the 

 "sport" making the most of his contemptible feat 

 by jubilant assertions of "Anyway, I know I hit 

 him — saw him fall." 



Beyond the active amusements, so to speak, which 

 I have named, there are some immaterial pleasures 

 to be enjoyed in Our Araby which, I venture to 

 think, remain long in the memory of those who 

 come here. It may sound commonplace to talk of 

 sunset colorings and sunrise panoramas, but any- 

 one who has watched the sunset light on the 

 Morongos from the rocky point that overlooks our 

 village will allow that it is a revelation of Nature 

 in her mood of tenderest loveliness. Nowhere as 

 on the desert will you experience what I may best 

 call the spirituality of color, beauty in sunset hues 

 so extreme that it affects one with a sense of pathos. 



