152 



THE DE8EET 



Life 



witliout 



water. 



Endwrwuee 

 of the 

 jack'rabbit. 



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 you find him where there 

 are no roots but grease-wood and no cactus at 



