THE SEA AND THE DESERT 191 



locusts in their general character. Among these 

 trees many varieties of cacti abounded, from the 

 round, globular ones known as " nigger heads," to 

 the branching, brittle, and thorny choUas, such 

 growths culminating with the vast and grotesque 

 shapes of the giant cactus, sometimes a monolith, 

 again a cross, and again a huge candelabra, with 

 every conceivable variation between the three 

 types. The almost naked ground was scantily 

 decked with scattered bunches of dried grass, 

 cured in the pure and heated atmosphere as it 

 stood, a mummied effigy. Everything, the hills 

 on the horizon, the plain itself, and the ensemble 

 of plant life, was dull gray brown in tone, with 

 suggestions of sombre yellow here and there to 

 lighten it. The atmosphere was singularly clear 

 and transparent, the sky cold blue, and cloudless. 



I had not pictured the waste of my imagination 

 with inhabitants ; birds and beasts were no part 

 of the prospect. Again I was at fault. Nowhere 

 have I seen so varied and teeming an aggregate 

 of small birds, reptiles, and insects as was pre- 

 sented at every turn. This was no barren, deso- 

 late, or forbidding region. 



A day's travel still disclosed at dusk the desert 

 stretching away westward, when I left the railway 

 at an obscure station. There was no town ; the 

 building that served the purpose of accommodat- 

 ing passengers and freight, and one or two rude 



