1 7 the what and the why of desert country 



without. But like human beings who have access to con- 

 veniences and luxuries, they probably prefer to do with. 



Obviously the animals and plants who share this coun- 

 try with me take it for granted. To them it is just "the way 

 things are." By now I am beginning to take it for granted 

 myself. But being a man I must ask what they cannot: 

 What is 3L desert and why is it what it is? At latitude thirty- 

 two one expects the climate to be warm. But the desert 

 is much more than merely warm. It is a consistent world 

 with a special landscape, a special geography, and, to go 

 with them, a special flora and fauna adapted to that geog- 

 raphy and that climate. 



Nearly every striking feature of this special world, 

 whether it be the shape of the mountains or the habits 

 of its plant and animal inhabitants, goes back ultimately 

 to the grand fact of dryness — the dryness of the ground, 

 of the air, of the whole sum-total. And the most inclusive 

 cause of the dryness is simply that out here it doesn't rain 

 very much. 



Some comparisons with regions where it rains more may 

 help us understand what that means. Take, for example, 

 southern New England. By world standards it gets a lot — 

 namely some forty inches of rain per year. Certain parts 

 of the southern states get even more: about fifty inches 

 for east Tennessee, nearly sixty for New Orleans. Some 

 areas on the West Coast get fantastic amounts, like the 

 seventy-five inches at Crescent City, California, and the 

 unbelievable 153 inches, or nearly four times what New 

 York City gets, recorded one year in Del Norde County, 

 California. 



Nevertheless, New England's forty is a lot of water, 



