198 



THE DESERT 



Home of (he 

 antelope. 



Beds of 

 soda and 

 gypifwm. 



Siding into 

 theuTiex- 



less bands of antelope, for it is jnst sach an 

 open country as the antelope loves ; bat they 

 have passed on, too. In their place roam 

 herds of cattle, and the gray wolf, the coyote, 

 and the buzzard follow the herds. 



The grease-wood and the grass plains of Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico are typical of all the flat 

 countries lying up from the deserts ; and yet 

 there are many tracts of small acreage in this 

 same region that show distinctly different feat- 

 ures. Sometimes there are small beds of flat 

 alkali dust, sometimes beds of soda and gypsum, 

 sometimes beds of salt. Then occasionally there 

 is a broad plain sown broadcast far and wide 

 with blocks of lava — the remnants of a great 

 lava-stream sent forth many centuries ago ; and 

 again flat reaches strewn thick with blocks of 

 porphyry that have been washed down from the 

 mountains no one knows just when or how. 

 You are always riding into the unexpected in 

 these barren countries, stumbling upon strange 

 phenomena, seeing strange sights. 



And yet as you ascend from the valley of the 

 Colorado moving to the northeast, the lands 

 and the sights become even stranger. For now 

 you are rising to the Great Plateau and the 

 Grand Canyon country — the region of the bntte. 



