THE DESERT 



CHAPTEE I 



THE APPROACH 



It is the last considerable group of moantains 

 between the divide and the low basin of the 

 Colorado desert. For days I have been watch- 

 ing them change color at sunset — watching the 

 canyons shift into great slashes of blue and 

 purple shadow, and the ridges flame with edg- 

 ings of glittering fire. They are lonesome look- 

 ing mountains lying off there by themselves on 

 the plain, so still, so barren, so blazing hot 

 under the sun. Forsaken of their kind, one 

 might not inappropriately call them the " Lost 

 Mountains " — the surviving remnant no doubt 

 of some noble range that long centuries ago 

 was beaten by wind and rain into desert sand. 

 And yet before one gets to them they may prove 

 quite formidable heights, with precipitous sides 

 and unsurmonntable tops. Who knows ? Not 

 those with whom I am stopping, for they have 

 1 



Desert 



