24 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
HORNED “TOAD" 
This is a stout-bodied lizard 
The other route out of San Bernardino into 
the desert is much longer, but more spectacular 
in preparing the observer step by step for an 
impressive experience. It leads through an 
immense and broad gateway—the San Gorgonia 
Pass—with steady running, on the level, between 
two great mountain ranges terminating in an 
alley some miles in length where the traveler 
leaves one realm to enter another, and through 
which a mighty wind is always rushing owing 
to the disturbances of atmospheres where heated 
air seethes upward over hundreds of square 
miles of surface. 
On one side is the San Bernardino range 
dwindling to a procession of sterile and forbid¬ 
ding hills, while on the other rear the majestic 
slopes and peak of Mount San Jacinto, a sheer 
10,000 feet above the pass. There is a variety 
of cacti and small tree yuccas. On continuing 
through the pass the vista of the desert is dis¬ 
closed like a golden sea. The heat rapidly in¬ 
creases. In August the puffs of wind feel as if 
propelled from a stove; yet the upper slopes of 
San Jacinto show canyons with patches of snow. 
The massive gateway is heralded by a strong 
wind. Those who know the region well declare 
it never ceases to blow, although its forces are 
varied. It has whipped the top from many an 
automobile and as quickly as an umbrella is 
wrenched from one’s hand in a gale. The power 
of this wind is indicated by two great golden 
hills on each side of the pass at the immediate 
entrance to the desert. These hills are sand 
drifts and at one side they sheer off as a pre¬ 
cipice like the sharp edge of a snow drift 
magnified a thousand fold. 
We entered this pass with a light car, 
equipped with plenty of water bags. The 
ENTERING THE DESERT THROUGH THE SAN GORGONIO PASS 
A heavy wind nearly always blows through this pass. The highlands in the rear are the dividing ridges 
of the San Bernardino Mountains, extending into the desert like a jetty into the sea and for distances of 
forty miles 
