40 



THE DESERT 



Sandstone 

 blocks. 



SaU-beds. 



Band-beds. 



have become wedged in a solid surface. For no 

 known reason other portions of the desert are 

 covered with blocks of red-incrusted sandstone 

 — the incrnstation being only above the sand- 

 line. In the lake-beds there is usually a surface 

 of fine silt. It is not a hard surface though it 

 often has a crust upon it that a wild cat can 

 walk upon, but a horse or a man would pound 

 through as easily as through crusted snow. 

 The salt-beds are of sporadic appearance and 

 hardly count as normal features of the desert. 

 They are often quite beautiful in appearance. 

 The one on the Colorado near Salton is hard as 

 ice, white, and after sunset it often turns blue, 

 yellow, or crimson, dependent upon the sky 

 overhead which it reflects. Borax and gypsum- 

 beds are even scarcer than the salt-beds. They 

 are also white and often very brilliant reflectors 

 of the sky. The sand-beds are, of course, more 

 frequently met with than any others ; and yet 

 your horse does not go knee-deep in sand for 

 any great distance. It is too light, and is 

 drifted too easily by the winds. Bowlders, 

 gravel, and general mountain wash is the most 

 common flooring of all. 



The mountains whence all the wash comes, 

 are mere ranges of rock. In the canyons, where 



