WHY WE DON'T DESERT 43 



cross sticking in it on the harbor head? " he asked 

 in a casual sort of way. 



Yes, we had all noticed it from the moment 

 >ve dropped anchor, and had wondered what it 

 >vas. 



" That," said the captain impressively, " is a 

 grave. Whaling vessels have been coming to 

 Turtle bay for years to paint ship and overhaul. 

 Three sailors on a whaler several years ago 

 thought this was a likely place in which to es- 

 cape. They managed to swim ashore .at night 

 and struck into the hills. They expected to find 

 farms and villages back inland. They didn't 

 know that the whole peninsula of Lower Cali- 

 fornia is a waterless desert from one end to the 

 other. They had some food with them and they 

 kept going for days. No one knows how far 

 inland they traveled, but they found neither in- 

 habitants nor water and their food was soon 

 gone. 



" When they couldn't stand it any longer and 

 were half dying from thirst and hunger, they 

 turned back for the coast. By the time they re- 

 turned to Turtle bay their ship had sailed away 



