Impressions of the Desert 203 
inhabits and is as appropriately designed for 
his environment as a rainbow trout for a 
brook. 
After a solitary vigil from starlight to 
starlight, I returned that night, impressed 
above all with the deceptiveness of the desert: 
I had discovered what a delusion it is. Yet, 
looking at it next day from my lava peak— 
lying so soft and opalescent in the distance 
—it beckoned as before, as beautiful and allur- 
ing and as full of enchantment as ever; and 
though arguing to myself that it was only 
distance lent it beauty, I felt its spell was not 
broken—would never be broken. Day after 
day it lures with its beautiful wiles, wrapped 
in mystery as profound as ever, in spite of 
my erstwhile disillusionment and a critical 
analysis of the facts. The desert ever refuses 
to be weighed in the balance of fact and 
of logic. While you reason and ponder, it 
weaves its spell around and around you, 
weaves it into the very fibre of your thought, 
until the sense is enmeshed and your little 
logic is forgotten—lost in that feeling for 
mystery and for beauty which the wonderful 
desert inspires. 
