DESERTS OF THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO 



701 



Bchinocactus grande: T£:huacan 

 A plant of great age and maximum size (see page 694) 



to send up its long inflorescence axis and 

 is loaded with sugary substances. The 

 leaves and roots are trimmed away, leav- 

 ing a huge core in the case of the large 

 agaves. A large pit is heated by means 

 of a hardwood fire built in it, and after 

 being cleansed of ashes and the remains 

 of the fire the cores are piled in the cavity 

 and covered, and allowed to bake slowly 

 for two or three days. 



Next the pit is uncovered and the 

 cores removed to a large vat made by 

 sewing the edges of three or four cow- 

 skins together and suspending them from 

 a framework of rough branches. Fer- 

 mentation is allowed to act upon the 

 sugary material for a week or ten days, 

 and then the unpleasantly smelling liquid 

 is dipped out and put in the kettle of a 

 rude still, the cap of which is connected 

 with pipes cooled with water run in 

 wooden conduits from a stream near by. 

 The resulting liquor contains a mixture 



of several alcohols and is exceedingly 

 fiery, being a true whisky of a desert 

 people. 



TWO POPULAR THE:oRIKS WHICH ARE EN- 

 TIRELY WRONG 



The Colorado River cuts directly into 

 the gravelly plain or mesa of the Sonoran 

 Desert at four points on the eastern 

 margin of its delta. At these places 

 may be found within a compass of 100 

 feet the most vivid contrasts of rank 

 swamp vegetation and water-loving 

 plants having broad leaves and delicate 

 tissues with the toughened, spinose, and 

 hairy xerophytic forms of the desert. 

 The presence of the moist area of the 

 delta has but little effect upon the climate 

 of contiguous arid regions, although a 

 popular supposition to the contrary prom- 

 ises to be immortal. The relative humid- 

 ity here is often as low as 17 per cent 

 within 50 feet of the margin of the water. 



