28 Botanizing on the Colorado Desert. [ January, a 
is excited by a half day’s walk under a scorching sun in this 
excessively dry atmosphere ; but from the incredible quantity I 3 
drank of this water, so offensive to the palate, I suffered not the @ 
slightest inconvenience afterwards. a 
From New River we pass forth again to a dreary stretch of 
sandy waste. Heaps of white bones half buried under sand — 
drifts by the wayside, mark the point where years ago a large herd 
of beef cattle perished in the attempt to drive them by this road 
from the rich grassy valleys of Sonora to the commanding maf- 
kets of the Californian coast. The afternoon heat was intense, 
and one felt more than willing to pause and rest a while as often 
as one found a creasote bush tall enough to give a little shade. : : 
Owing to the several delays made during the day, the deep event 
ing shadows, as they fell, found me some miles from the station; 
but the road being clearly traceable, there was no danger of miss-_ af 
ing one’s way, and the walk by starlight, in the cooler air, was_ 3 
not unpleasant. As I entered now another belt of low mezquit 
wood, the light evening breeze came laden with delightful pet- 
fume very much like that of pond lilies. But for the loose, dry, 
yielding earth beneath my feet 1 could, in the darkness, have fan- a 
cied myself near the margin of some far northern lake in June, 
when thousands of those queenly flowers rest on the bosom of pla 
cid waters, and breathe “ sabean odors” on the air of night. From — 
thoughts of distant lands,and memories of “ days that are no more. ” = 
_ I was called back to the present by the significant and just now | E 
not unwelcome sound of a bull dog’s bark, announcing the prox: 4 a 
imity of my place of shelter for the night, or at least of what fo 
outside the door, I descried, by the light of the rising moon, som a 
bales of hay near the stable, and, as the night air was mild,*+ ~ 
asked and readily obtained permission to sleep on a bale of hays q 
Here I lay, wakeful for a long hour, watching by the moonlight | 4 
the gambols of a wolf from the desert. This frolicsome beast — 
amused himself and me by capering and yelping around the 4 
chained watch dog, greatly to the annoyance of the latter, who 
evidently wished himself free fora good chase or a fair fight. 3 
In the early morning search was made for the flowers, whatever 
they might be, which had breathed forth such grateful incense 00 — 
