200 



THE DESERT 



Riding on 

 the mesas. 



The rever- 

 sion to 

 savagery. 



The thin 

 air again. 



mind yon that yon are still in a desert land, and 

 that the bench and the arid plain are really a 

 part of the great waste itself. 



Nature never designed more fascinating coun- 

 try to ride over than these plains and mesas 

 lying up and back from the desert basin. Yon 

 may be alone without necessarily being lone- 

 some. And everyone rides here with the feel- 

 ing that he is the first one that ever broke into 

 this unknown land, that he is the original dis- 

 coverer; and that this new world belongs to 

 him by right of original exploration and con- 

 quest. Life becomes simplified from necessity. 

 It begins all over again, starting at the primitive 

 stage. There is a reversion to the savage. Civ- 

 ilization, the race, history, philosophy, art — 

 how very far away and how very useless, even 

 contemptible, they seem. What have they to do 

 with the air and the sunlight and the vastness of 

 the plateau ! Nature and her gift of buoyant life 

 are overpowering. The joy of mere animal ex- 

 istence, the feeling that it is good to be alive 

 and face to face with Nature's self, drives every- 

 thing else into the background. 

 r And what air one breathes on these plains — 

 what wonderful air ! It is exhilarating to the 

 iwhole body ; it brightens the senses and sweet- 



