200 East and West 
shaped and isolated hills which might serve 
as an objective point for a day’s ride. But 
when subsequently I came where apparently 
they should have been, not only were they not 
there, but they were nowhere in view, nor 
were they again seen until I returned to my 
starting point and climbed the hills. To 
begin with, they were much farther away than 
they appeared to be, and then again the plain 
is not as flat as it looks from a distance, but 
has sufficient curvature to shut out certain 
hills at close range. 
On the other hand, far off to the east, 
appeared at noon a rather high range which 
I did not remember having seen before, and 
have not been able to find since. On returning 
to the same spot—there it is; but from my 
workshop there appears to be no such range, 
though there are others which could not be 
seen from the plain. There is thus no telling 
when a range may appearor another disappear, 
as if they rose from the desert or subsided into 
it like some volcanic isles in the sea. It is all 
enchantment and on the map the ranges should 
be marked as indefinite or uncertain. They 
may be there or they may not, according to 
the point of view and the direction of ap- 
proach—or the whim of the mountains them- 
