A LAND OF DROUGHT AND DESERT 



463 



WATER-HOLE AT SAN ANGEL, ON THE EASTERN BORDER OE THE SANTA CLARA DESERT, 



20 MILES WESTERLY FROM SAN IGNACIO 



"I have come repeatedly to solitary water-holes, in the hottest weather, a long march 

 from any other water, and found the loose earth about their borders undisturbed by tracks 

 except those of birds, while within a few rods were tracks where wandering deer and rabbits 

 had fed day after day with absolute indifference to the proximity of water. A large number 

 of the smaller kinds of desert mammals, rats, rabbits, etc., never drink water. Apparently 

 they never know thirst or the delight of quenching it" ( see page 467). 



middle parts of the peninsula, but occurs 

 also on Cedros Island. It is a curious 

 dropsical-appearing tree, from three to 

 six feet high, with a trunk measuring 

 a foot or two in diameter at the base 

 and sending out thick, wide-spreading, 

 contorted branches. Both trunk and 

 branches are covered with a smooth- 

 skinned bark lying in thick folds and 

 curves, as though much swollen ( see pic- 

 ture, page 460). 



Here and there we saw combinations 

 of plant forms so beautiful and strange 

 as to suggest the flora of a past geologic 

 age. This was specially notable in the 

 Arroyo de Catavifia, a broad, dry wash 

 of white sand winding through a shallow 

 valley in a granite plain. Along the bot- 



tom near the wash were little groups of 

 exquisitely graceful palms, their beauty 

 heightened by the formal stiffness of 

 their neighbors, the tall cirios, cactuses,, 

 and Fouquieras (see picture, page 452). 



For hundreds of miles our route lay 

 through these curious forests, and we 

 found them most impressive when we 

 were obliged to make long night inarches 

 to reach distant water-holes. For hours 

 we rode silently in the brilliant moon- 

 light through an unbroken succession of 

 grotesque forms, half revealed by the 

 uncertain light, until we seemed to be 

 traveling in the unreal world of some 

 fantastic imagination. On these occa- 

 sions we traveled until the moon went 

 down and left us in the black darkness. 



