152 



THE DESERT 



Life 



without 

 water. 



Endurance 

 of the 

 jaek-rabiit. 



pear, many of them get no water at all. There 

 are sections of the desert, fifty or more miles 

 square, where there is not a trace of water in 

 river, creek, arroyo or pocket, where there is 

 never a drop of dew falling ; and where the two 

 or three showers of rain each year sink into the 

 sand and are lost in half an hour after they 

 have fallen. Yet that fifty-mile tract of sand 

 and rock supports its animal, reptile and insect 

 life just the same as a similar tract in Illinois 

 or Florida. How the animals endure, how — 

 even on the theory of getting used to it — the 

 jack-rabbit, the ground squirrel, the rat, and 

 the gopher can live for months without even 

 the moisture from green vegetation, is one of 

 the mysteries. A mirror held to the nose of 

 a desert rabbit will show a moist breath-mark 

 on the glass. The moisture came out of the 

 rabbit, is coming out of him every few sec- 

 onds of the day ; and there is not a drop of 

 moisture going into him. Evidently the an- 

 cient axiom : "Out of nothing, nothing comes" 

 is all wrong. 



It is said in answer that the jack-rabbit gets 

 moisture from roots, cactus-lobes and the like. 

 And the reply is that yon find him where there 

 are no roots but grease-wood and no cactus at 



