In the Giant Cactus Belt 179 
dence, unless he has himself witnessed the 
phenomenon. Thus recently there was a 
continuous downpour for forty-eight hours. 
At this time there fell upon the ear, accus- 
tomed to the silence of the cafions and the 
mesas, a sound which here seemed strange and 
portentous—a deep sullen roar. Hurrying 
to the creek bed I saw a rapid torrent of dark 
red fluid, some twenty-five yards in width and 
a foot or so in depth, where had been only 
dry sands, while the grim cafion beyond re- 
sounded with the tumult of the waters. Yet 
in forty-eight hours more it had dwindled to a 
small stream and soon had sunk into the 
sands, leaving the cafion silent as before. The 
thirsty sands forever drink up the streams. 
| But not from any array of facts do you get 
the true impression of this, or of any desert 
country, for the desert yields itself only to the 
mysticimagination. It must be born in mind, 
however, that alarge part of southern Arizona 
is mountainous, a series of desert plains, and 
that these plains are arboreal and very unlike 
the saffron deserts of Africa and of Western 
Asia. 
Imagine now the scene before me in my 
mountain workshop, open to the heavens and 
well ventilated, rest assured. It is twenty- 
