198 East and West 
more than ever like islands. Unutterably 
beautiful, they redeemed the commonplace- 
ness, the terrible sameness of my surroundings. 
The Bradshaws appeared against the horizon 
like some vast wave arrested in its course and 
instantly and for ever fixed. It is above all 
the sublime repose of these arid mountains 
which appeals. In the whole world there is 
nothing else so suggestive of infinite repose: 
as if a vast symbol were carved there in the 
sky that all men should see and take heed. 
There in the burning sun, in the ineffable si- 
lence, one is hushed as by the face of the dead. 
On that open cactus plain one feels detached 
and cut off and I found myself looking to the 
distant mountains for solace, realising as 
never before what good company they are, 
how much they yield us the essence of com- 
panionship. 
In every way the desert proves deceptive 
and to ride over it isa good study in appear- 
ances. A range in the distance may seem to 
run north and south, but after a half-day’s 
ride toward it, is found to be a number of 
spurs, before unnoticed, whose axis lies east 
and west. Then again what appears to be 
a butte or a mesa is often, in reality, two, 
widely separated perhaps, but the eye, entirely 
