Newspaper Page Text
SUMY SOUTH
California Coast May Furnish An-
i
other host Atlantis
THIRD <PAGE
& A NDIRQN TALES *
Bar John Kendrick Bangs
(Copyright, 1§02.)
By ARTHUR J BURLICfC
Written for Che Sunny South
TRANGE things are taking
place in the Pacific off the
the coast of Los Angeles
county. Santa Catalina is
land, one of the best
known of the American is
lands of the Pacific, is
slowly sinking into the
sea. and San Clemente is
land, its twin, 20 miles
farther out to sea, is ris
ing out of the ocean
depths. Likewise San
Pedro hill on the main
land is attaining a greater elevation.
Terra firma belies its name along the
Pacific coast, for it has an extremely un
stable way of shaking and shifting itself
which is often extremely unpleasant to
those who have placed sufficient confi
dence In her to take up their abode in
her bosom. Geologists find plenty of in
disputable evidences of volcanoes, once
active but now extinct, at various points
tlong the coast, and even now several
hundred small cones are vomiting vol
canic matter in the lower desert of south
ern California. That the heart of Mother
Earth is still troubled Is evidenced by fre
quent earthquakes and what surprises she
may have in store for the world may only
be guessed at. There has been no year
since the history of events were made a
matter of record here but there have
been one or more earthauake shocks. Dur
ing the fifteen years from 1850 to 1S65, no
less than 106 earthquakes were recorded
In the state of California. Some of these
were slight and others did a great deal
of damage. The shock of March 30. 1S9S,
(Vam.aged the United State's "fiflvy yard
nt Mare Island several hundred thou
sand dollars. Another one destroyed the
village of Hemet but a few months ago
and caused the death of six individuals.
In 1808 twenty-one shocks were noted at
the Presidio between the dates of June
21 and July 17. and the auake of Sep-
A day’s catch at Santa Catalina
Being mountainous, they are observable
from the mainland, save when the mists
of old ocean drop temporarily over them
like an obscuring veil. They seem, as a
fanciful tourist once said, like fragments
of the Coast range floating out to s^a.
When the Spanish occupancy took place
in California, the peaks of the islands at
tracted their attention and some adven
turous spirits took possession of the
islands and began the raising of flocks of
sheep and goats. The wild goats and
sheep, so plentiful today on these isles,
are descendants of those Hocks. Those
early herders had to fight for possession
of the lands, for they found them occu
pied by the Pineugnas Indians, a warlike
tribe distinguished for their fine physique
and skill in boat building. The adven
tures of these early settlers would make
a volume of very interesting reading.
Later, in 1830, attracted by these beck
oning island mountains. George Yount,
with several associates, built a schooner
at San Pedro, and went to the islands in
search of sea otter. The game which they
sought was plentiful and they did a
good business. While living upon Santa
Catalina they discovered rich outcrop
pings of gold and silver bearing ores,
but it was otter 'that they were after,
not precious metais, and they paid iit-
tJe attention to their find. Later, when
the Coloma strike brought thousands
of eager gold seekers 'to the coast, Yount
bethought him of their find and returned
to the island to search for the neglected
wealth. He was unable to locate the
vein ar.d gave the thing tip. Still later,
when the southern California strikes were j
made, prospectors learned in Los Angeles
of the lost mine of the otter hunters
and they sought the island and found
rich ores in several parts of the moun
tainous isle. In the next few months
hundtlds of claims tvere recorded in
Los Angeles county and ores assaying
as high as $S00 to the ton were exhibited,
demonstrating that precious minerals
were rot lacking rn the island. Then
came the war of the secession and 1'ncle
A point that is rising out of the ecean
tember, 1812, which destroyed the mis
sions of San Juan Capristrano in Los
Angeles county and Purissima in Santa
Barbara county, wrecked many other
buildings and caused the (loath of half
a hundred persons. Very many of these
earth convulsions have been felt at Santa
Catalina, and there is every reason to be
lieve that the changes now taking place
there are the result of the internal dis
turbances which are responsible for the
earthquakes felt in southern California.
The residents of Santa Catalina and
San Clements have long been partially
conscious that certain changes were tak
ing place, but the change
and has been so gradual that
XldM it has not Impressed
Constantly them to any great ex-
IncrctM in tent. If the tides roll a
Height little farther up the
beach or the waves dash
a little higher up the rocks this year
than last, they came to the conclusion
that they imagined it and hav« let It go
at that.
A recent investigation by scientific men
of the University of California has dis
closed the fact that the island of Santa
Catalina Ilea 270 feet lower than It did
some years ago. That t'hlB sinking is
purely local and not a general depression
of the coast or of any considerable dic
tion of the country is proven by the fact
j>T the elevation of the mainland, 20 miles
to the east, and of San Clemente, 20 miles
westward.
There is interesting history connected
with these twin Islands of the Pacific.
Sam, to prevent the island becoming
the redezvous of confederate filibusters
and privateers, took possession of the
island and the miners were forced to
vacate for the time being. After the
war one Lick came forward with pa
pers issued by the Spanish government
previous to the accession of the terri
tory by the United States, giving him ti
tle to the islands. His claim was pro
nounced valid and the claims of the
miners annulled. Prom Lick the title
then passed-to the Bannings, the pres
ent owners. The n ineral wealth of the
island has since been undisturbed. The
pieturesquencss cf its mountains and
canyons, the delightfulness of its climate,
the beauty of its one land-locked harbor,
the myriad of fish, great and small,
which Infest its shcres, the profusion of
flowers and its numbers of birds are a
mine of wealth greater than the metals
in its hidden veins, for they attract to the
spot tourists from all parts of the world
and the yellow metal, mined, milled and
coined, flows, a constant stream, into the
coffers of the owners of the resort.
The twin island, San Clemente, has a
very different history. This Island has
never known much of the white man.
In all of its more ‘than
Dssolsts 40,000 acres there Is not a
Island living spring of water..
Given Not ^.n inviting place—
to Sheep seemingly—for man or
Culture beast, and yet for years
thousands of head of
sheep were g*azed there. Charles Work
man, who now lives in Los Angeles, was
a resident of the island thirty-five years
ago. He lived 'there years alone upon
he waterless isle with a dog. a mule and.
a few chickens for companions, and acted
as watchman over 14,000 sheep, who ran
wild over the island and lived and thrived
tpon its vegetation.
It never rains during the summer in
San Clemenlte, out in the winter season
the rain falls at intervals, and In a nat
ural basin at the bottom of a deep can
yon several thousand gallons of water are
stored. This served as the water sup
ply for Workman and his mule and
dog. The shoep did not have access to
this reservoir and they never got water
other than the moisture which the fogs
and dew deposited upon the foliage. This,
however, proved sufficient, for the ani
mals 'thrived and waxed fat. These sheen
were as wild as deer and whenever old
Charley wanted a wether for food he had
to stalk the flock, as he would amy other
game and shoot his meat from a distance.
Once a year a little schooner would ar
rive in the iittle porit bringing a few
men and horses for the roundup, and
thirty' or forty Mexican sheep-shearers,
and the flock would be driven into the
corrals and for a month all hands would
be busy' clipping, tying and packing the
fluetx'S. Then old Charley would be
left for a norther eleven months to thq
companionship of his dog, chickens and
mule.
San Clemente spoiled, later on, for sheep
grazing. Some enterprising herder drilled
a well for fresh water and obtained an
abundant supply. After that the sheep
ceased to thrive. The reason for this is
simple. When their only' supply of mois
ture was the dew and the fog-laden
grasses they were forced to get out onto
the hills_and graze in the early morning,
before the sun had dried up the damp
ness. Later they sought the shade of
the cany'ons and caws of the island and
there remained till the foliage again be
came wet. When they were able to slake
their thirst with the waters of the wells
they grazed so little that they became
poor and scrawny and sickness made
heavy inroads on tile flock. It is an in
stance of trying to thwnrt nature and
getting left.
And what of the seismic disturbances
and changes that are in progress at tihese
islands? Will Santa Catalina continue to
sink till the waves of the
Islands Pacific roll over her hig’n-
Which est peaks? It is not im-
Have Sunk possible. Plenty of in-
Into stances are cited to prove
Ocean that such might be the
case. The island of Fer-
dinandea, which suddenly rose out of the
sea, sunk again beneath the way'es. Oni-
us Island, 5 miles from the mouth of the
Targerany river and 20 miles east of Ba
tavia, and the island of Mldah, 10 miles
from the coast of Java, were swallowed
up In 1883. St. Euphemla, In Calabria,
sank out of sight in 163S. Twenty-five
thousand acres of land Just outside of
Port Royal, Jamaica, subsided Into the
sea in 1692. A point of land 7 miles long
by 5 miles broad disappeared off the coast
of Chile in 1834. Port of the coast of Peru
near Callao subsided in 1786.
The eastern coast of South America is
sinking at the present time, while the
western coast from Venezuela to the
straits of Magellan are rising. The is
lands forming the archipelago of Hawaii
are but the remains of a continent gone
down. The West Indies are but frag
ments of an immense peninsula which ex
tended from Mexico, Central America and
New Granada eastward, and Santa Cata
Una and San Clemente are the remains of
a promontory jutting out from Pt. Con
ception. Santa Catalina may never sink
to any considerable extent, or she may
gradually subside into the sea.
Again, it is possible tha.t the earth may,
in her agonized throes, engulf this charm
ing spot suddenly and with little or no
warning, and the story of the lost At
lantis may have its counterpart in the
Pacific.
CHAPITER. SIX
Thu Lltumry Bellowf
HAT/kept you so Cong?” ask
ed Ithe Poker as the And-
lrqfn and Bellows came up.
as your friend Bellows
ouil of breath, or what?”
“HPo, I wa)?n’t out of
breEuth,” said the Bellows.
"I nlever get out of breath.
You unlght as well exp?et a
groceiryman to be cut of
girocelries as a bellows to be
out lof breath. I wasn’t
long/ either—at least, no
CoRigfer than usual, which is
two foot it'hree. A lclnger bellows than that
would be useless folr our purpose. I simply
didn’t want to eolm-?. that’s all. I was
very busy writing/when they Interrupted
me.”
"It was very kinrl of you to come when
you didn’t want t/>.” said Tom.
“No. it wasn’t,”! said the Bellows. “I
didn’t want to com’e then. I don’t want to
be here now. and', 1 wouldn’t blow the
cloud an inch for yo’> if I didn't have to.”
"But why do yon have to?” asked
Tom.
"I'm outvoted, that ’s all,” replied the
Bellows. “You see, mj' dear Weasel’’—
“Dormouse,” whisper**! the Poker.
"I mean Dormouse," ,said the Bellows
correcting himself. “You see I beCiev.j in
everybody having a sa y in regard to
everything. I always hav.e everything I
can put to a vote. Consequently, when
RiglCy here came down and. asked me to
help blow the cloud over and I sftid that I
wouldn’t do it 'he called Lefty in and we
put it to a vote as to whether I’d have
to or not. They voted that I must and I
voted that I needn’it, and, of course, that
beat me; so here I am.”
"Well, it's very good of you, just the
same,” said the Poker. "You aren't quite
as good-natured as I am. but you come
pretty near it. Most people would have
left a matter of that kind entirely to
themselves and then voted the way they
long to be 'good, and as long as it Is all
there—”
"I know,” said Tom, “but in most sto
ries there’is a lot of things put in that help
t’a make It interesting.”
"All padding!” sneered the Bellows,
“and that I will never do. If a story can
be told in five words what’s the use of
padding It out to five thousand?”
’•’None,” said Tom, “except tliat you
can't make a book out of a story of five
words."
“Oh, yes, you can,” said the BeClows
airily. "]t isn’t any trouble at all if
you only know how, and in the end you
have a much more useful book than if
you made it a million words long. You
can print the five word- on the first page,
and leave the other five hundred pages
blank, so that after you get through with
i:he volume as a story book you can use it
for a blank book or a diary. Most books
■nowadays are so full’ of stciry that when
you get through with them there isn't
anything else you can do with the book.”
“It's a new idea,” said Tom with a
laugh.
“And all my own invention, too,” said
the Bellows proudly.
“He’s the most inventive BeKows that
ever was,” put in the Poker, “that is.
in a literary way. How many copies of
your book of ’Unwritten Poems’ did you
sell. Wheezy?” he added.
“Eight millions,” returned the Bellows,
’’that was probably my greatest literary
achievement.”
“ ’Unwritten Poems,’ eh?” said Tom, to
whom the title seemed curious.
“Yes,” said the Be'lows. “The book
had 300 pages, all nicely bound—26 lines to
a page—and each beginning with a capital
letter, just as p:etry should. Then, so as
to be quite fair to all the letters, I began
with A and went righll straight through
the alphabet to Z.”
‘‘But the poems?” demanded Tom.
"They were unwritten, just as the title
said.” replied the Bellows. "You see that
loft everything to the imagination, which
is a great thing in poetry.”
WEAK KIDNEYS AND
DLADDER TROUDLE
•
Had lo Pass Water Very Often Day and Night.
Cured by the Great Kidney Remedy, Swamp-I<oor
DR. KILMER & CO.. Binghamton, N. Y.
About two years ago I had a very severe case of kidney and bladder trouble.
The pain in the small of my back was so severe that I could not stand it to stay in
one position more than a moment or two, and was obliged to pass water very
often day and night. I tried medicines and doctors without getting relief. Notic
ing an advertisement in The Topeka State Journal of Swamp-Root, I determined
to give it a trial and bought a bottle. By the time I had finished the first bottle
the pain had entirely disappeared from my back. The pain and frequent desire to
pass water ceased. However, I continue d to take the medicine, using about six
bottles in all. That was over a year ago and I have had no return of th? trouble
since.
c/4:
”You see I can’t hrrite because I haven t any hands," said the Bellows
No Money Wanted.
Simply Tell Me the Book
You Need.
Please write a postal to know what I
spent a Mfetlmu in learning. It 'Is a way
to get well—often the only way.
With the book I will send an order on
your druggist for six bottles Dr. Shoop's
Restorative; and he will let you test It a
month. If satisfied, the cost Is $5.50. If
It falls. 1 will pay your druggist myself.
Think what that means. On any other
remedy such an offer would bankrupt the
maker. But I have furnished my remedy
to over half a million people on Just those
terms; and 39 out of each 40 have paid
for It, because they were cured. When
it fail's not a penny is wanted.
My success comes from strengthening
the Inside nerves. I bring back the
power that operates the vttail organs.
Nerve powe* alone can overcome this
weakness. I pity the sick one who lets
prejudice keep him from getting my
book.
Book No. 1 ob Dyspepsia,
Book No. 2 on the Heart,
Book No. S on the Kidneys,
Book No. 4 for Women,
Book No. 5 for Men, (Moled)
Book No. 6 on Rheumatism.
Simply state which
book you want, and
address Dr. Sboop,
Box Ml, Racine, Wis.
Mild cases, not chronic, are often cured by
one or two bottles. At ail druggists.
felt like voting. You aren’t selffish, any
how.”
"Yeji, I am,” said the Bellows. “I’m
am'fully selfish.”
“You’re not. either,” said the Poker.
“Oh, goodne93," exclaimed the Bellows.
“What’s the use of fighting? I say 1 am.
"Ltl’.’s ’have a vote on it,” said Rlghty.
"I vote he isn’t.”
“So do I.” said Tom.
“Me, too,” said Lefty.
“Those are my sentiments likewise,”
put in the Poker.
"Oh, very well, then. I’m not,” said the
Bellows, with a deeip drawn sigh, "but
I do wish you’d let me have my own
way about some things. I want to be self
ish. even if I’m not.”
"Well, we are very sorry,” said the
Poker, "but we can’t lot you be; we
need you too much to permit you to be
saltish. Besides, you’re loo good a fellow
to be selfish. I know a boy who was self
ish once, and he 'got into all sorts of trou
ble. Nobody liked him, and once when he
gave a big dinner to a lot of other boys
not one of them would come, and he had
to eat all the dinner himself. The result
wats that he overaite him self, ruined his
digestion, and all the rest of his life had
to do without pies and cakes and other
good things. It served him right, too.
Do you think we are going to let you be
like that, Mr. Bellows?”
“I suppose not,” said the Bellows, "but
stories about selfish boys don’t frighten
me. I’m a bellows, not a boy. I don’t
give dinners and I don’t eat pie and cake.
Plain air Is good enough for me. and I
wouldn’t give a cent for all the other
good eatables In the world except dough
nuts. I like doughnuts because, after a'll,
they are only bellows cakes. But come,
let’s hurry up with the cloud. I want to
gelt hack to my desk. I have a poem to
finish before breakfast.”
This statement Interested Tom hugely.
He had read many a book, but never be
fore had he met a real author, and even
if the Bellows had been a man. so long as
he was a writer Tom wou'ld have looked
upon him with awe.
“Excuse me.” he said hesitatingly, as
the Bellows began to wheeze away at the
cloud. “Do you really write?”
"Well, no,” said the Bellows. “No, I
don’t write, but I blow a story or two
now and then. You see, I can’t write be
cause I haven't any hands, but I can
wheeze out a ta'Ie to a stenographer once
in a while which any magazine would be
glad to publish if it could get hold of it.
One of rfiy stories called Sparks blew into
a powder magazine once and It made a
tremendous noise in ^he world when it
came out.”
"I wi'.-h you would tell me one,” said
Tom..
“Are you a stenographer?” asked the
Bellows.
’■No.” said Tom, “but I like stories just
the same.”
“Well,” said the Bellows. “I’ll tell you
one about Jimmie Tompkins and the red
apple.
“Hurrah!” cried Tom. "I love red ap
ples."
“So did Jimmy Tompkins,” said the Bel
lows, “and that’s why) he died. He ate a
red apple while It was green and it killed
him.” i
There was a pause tor an Instant, and
the Bellows redouble* his efforts to move
the cloud, which tor #ome reason or other
did not stir easily.
“Go ahead,” said “Som, when he thought
he had waited longil enou ®h tor ithe Bel
lows to resume.
"What on?” ask'
“On your story
kins and the red a'
“Why, I’ve (told
torted the Bellows,
apple and died. Wh
That’s all there is
“It Isn’t a very lei
Tom, ruefully, for
pointed.
“Well, why should
Bellows. "A story
the Bellows.
at Jimmie Tomp-
>le,” Tom answered,
^ou that story,” re-
VJlmmie ate the red
. more do you want?
It.”
story.” suggested
was much dlsap-
be?” demanded the
Doesn't have to be
"Didn’t people complain?” Tom asked.
“Everybody did,” replied the Bellows,
“but that was just What I wanted,
agreed to answer every complaint accom
panied by 10 cents in postage stamps.
Eighth million complaints alone brought
me in $480,000 over and above all expenses,
I which were 4 cents per complaint.”
"But what was you answer?” demand
ed Tom.
"I merely told them that my book stood
upon its own merits and that if they
didn’t like my unwritten poems 3hey could
write some of their own on ithe blank
pages of the book. It was a perfectly fair
proposition,” the Bellows replied.
"I think I like written, poetry best,
though,” said Tom.
"That’s entirely a matter of taste,” said
the Bellows, “and 1 shan’t find fault with
you for that. The only thing is that Un
written Poems are apt to have fewer
faults than the written ones, and every
great poet will te*;i you that nobody ever
detected any mistakes in his poems until
he had put them down on paper. If he
had left them unwritten nobody would
ever have known how bad they were.”
Tom scratched his ‘head in a puzzled
mood. He could not quite grasp the Bel
lows’ meaning.
“What do you think about it, Righty?”
he demanded of the Andiron.
“Oh, I don't think anything about it,”
replied Rlghty. “I haven’t watched poetry
much. You see, Lefty and I don't see
much of it. People light fires nowadays
more with newspaper!? than with poetry.”
“What I’ve seen burns well,” observed
the Left'handlron, “and don’t make much
ashes to get into your eyes; buit, say.
Wheezy, if you’ll do your blowing about
•this cloud rather than about your poetry
we may get some'where.”
“Very well,” said the BeKows, "fasten
your hats on tight and turn up your col
lars. I’m going to give you a regular tor
nado.”
And he was as good as his word, for, ex
panding hiim'self to the utmost limit, he
gave a tremendous wheeze. Which nearly
blew Tom from his perch, sent his cap
flying off Into space and smashed the
cloud into four separate pieces, one of
which, bearing the Poker, floated rapidly
off to the north, while the other three
sped south, east and west, respectively.
“Hi, tthere,” cried Righty, as he perceiv
ed the damage done to their fleecy
chariot. "What are you up to? We don’t
want to be blown to the four corners 67
the earth. Pull in—pull in, for goodness
sake, or we’ll never get together again!”
“There’is no satisfying you fellows,”
growled the Bellows. "First I don’t blow
enough, and then I blow -too much.”
“Stop growling and haul us back
again!" cried the Poker.
The Bellow began to haul in his breath
rapidly and by a process of suction soon
had the four parts of the bursted cloud
back together again.
“By jingo!” panted Lefty. “That was
a narrow escape. Two seconds more and
this party would have been a goner. Even
as it is, you've twisted my neck so I’ll
never get it back in shape again,” said
the Righfhandiron.
“Well, I’m sorry,” said the Bellows,
“but it’s all your o.wn fault. You asked
me to blow the cloud, and I blew it. You
didn’t say whore you wanted it blown.”
"You needn’t have blown it to smith
ereens, just the same,” retorted the Pok
er. "It doesn’t cost anything to ask a
question now and then.”
“Where, then?” demanded the Bellows.
"I’d like to find my hat,” said Tom.
“Very ■well,” said the Bellows. “I see
it 'speeding off toward the moon, and we’ll
chase after it, but we’ll never catch it If
It misses the moon and falls past it into
space.”
The Poker rose to his full height and
peered after the cap, which, even
as the Bellows had said, was sailing
rapidly off in the direction of the crescent
moon, whioh lay to the west and below
them.
“Hurrah!” he cried. “It’s oil right.”
"Can you see it still?” asked Tom, anx-
(A. H. Noonoy.)
Chief Engineer, State
Capitol Building,
Tcpeka, Kan.
Jan. 2nd, 1902.
Weak and unhealthy kidneys are resp onsible for more sickness and suffering
than any other disease, therefore, when t hrough neglect or other causes, kidney
trouble is permitted to continue, fatal results arc sure to foilon).
We often see a relative, a friend, or a n acquaintance apparently well, but in a
few days we may be grieved to learn of their severe illness, or sudden death, caused
by that fatal type of kidney trouble—Bright’s Disease.
The mild and extraordinary effect of the world-famous kidney and bladder
remedy. Dr. Kilmer’s Swamp-Root, is soon realized. It stands the highest for its
wonderful cures of the most distressing cases. A trial will convince anyone—and
you may have a sample bottle sent free, by mail.
Sample Bottle of Swamp-Root Free by Mail.
EDITORIAL NOTE.—Swamp-Root has been tested in so many ways, and has
proven so successful in every case, that a special arrangement has been made by
which all readers of The Sunny South who have not already tried it may have a
sample bottle sent absolutely free by mail. Also a book telling all about Swamp-
Root, and containing many of the thousands upon thousands of testimonial let
ters received from men and women who owe their good health, in fact, their very
lives, to the wonderful curative properties of Swamp-Root. In writing, be sure and
mention reading this generous offer in T he Atlanta Sunny South when send
ing your address to Dr. Kilmer & Co., Binghamton, N. Y.
If you are already convinced that Swa mp-Root is what you need, you can pur
chase the regular fifty-cant and one-doll ar size bottles at the drug stores everj-
where. Don't make any mistake, but re member the name, Swamp-Rpot. Dr. Kil
mer’s Swamp-Root, and the address, Binghamton, N. Y., on every bottle.
iously, for his cap was made of. sealskin,
and he didn’t want to lose it.
“Yes, it’s all rlghe,” said the Poker.
“It nearly missed, but not quite. If you
will look through these glasses you will
sei it.”
The Poker handed Tom a Jfc-lr of strong
field glasses, and the lad, gazing anxious
ly through them, was delighted to see his
wandering cap hanging, as if on a great
olden hook in the sky beneath them, and
which was nothing more than the last
appearance of the moon itself.
"Good." cried the Righthandiron, “That
settles the question for us of where we
shad go next. There is no choice left.
We'll go to the moon. Heave ahead,
Wheezy.”
Whereupon the Bellows began to blow,
at first gently, then stronger and stronger,
and yet more strongly still, until t/he cloud
was moving rapid!y in the direction they
desired. r
(To Be Continued.)
Odd Desert Flora Sr Fauna—Birth
place of Crude Life
By JAMES A HALL
Written for CAe Sunny South
O one who possesses some
thing of the taste of the
naturalist the Colorado
desert of southern Califor
nia offers many sources of
interest. The prevailing
types of both plant and
animal life found in this
region of sand dunes and
alkali wastes differ gen
erally from those found
elsewhere, and in some in
stances this difference is
alncst startling.
The queer looking greasewood grows on
the desert and along with it are found
the stately fan palm, the green agave,
century plant, the fantastic yucca, and
the gnarled end scrubby mesquite.
There are birds and animals and rep
tiles, all dressed in grav. and so nearly
does the prevailing color of all living
things conform to the hue of the desert
that it is almost impossible to see the lit
tle dwellers of the waste even when near
at hand. It is doubtful If nature’s meda
cf protection is anywhere found more
strikingly exemplified than here. It has
been suggested that the bird and the
rat and the chipmunk of the delsert get
iheir ashen hue from the excessive aridity
and brightness, but It may be recalled
that polar regions also clothe their fur
and feather-clad inhabitants in gray and
u hlte.
I have often been impressed with the
blending of colors in animals and birds
in the southern states with their environ
ments, but nowheTe have I seen such
harmony between the object and its sur.
roundings as on the Colorado desert.
Every one who has anv knowledge of
outdoor life In Georgia has seen little
tree toads whose skins looked for alt
the world like the bark of the oak, and
the most careless observer of bird life
has noted the difficulty in locating nest3,
especially of the grosbeak and quail even
where they were know'n to exist.
This blending of colors with surround
ings must be the outcome of long con
tinued selection, and is the process by
which nature protects Its creatures, and
prolongs their lives. It is very easily
understood how any highly colored, object
which contrasted strongly with the gen
eral hue of the desert would attract at
tention of stronger and more ferocious
prey hunters, and thus have Its career
cut short. But those of pale and ashen
hue would be safeguarded by their color
and perhaps attain long life and propa
gate numerous offspring.
It is a- wild and enchanting picture the
Colorado desert presents with Its wide
stretches of glimmering snnd. wild, bold
mountains rising hera
Something and there sheer from tha
of Life plain and presenting a
In most forbidding appear-
the ance in their primitive
Desert nakedness. The plain is
furrowed by winding
channels of dry streams, a few holes of
hot, brackish water occur at wide inter
vals and in well favored nooks the mag
nificent fan palm rises to a height of
40 or more feet. These fan palms usually
have iheir trunks charred and blackened
from flie ground almost to the tuft of
rich green at the top.
These black tree trunks tell the story
of a weird superstition which exists
among the desert Indians. When one of
their tribe dies the drv hark and dead
leaves cf the palms are set on fire and
a greit blaze is produced. By this light
the soul of the departed finds Its way
across the black, reeky and thorn-strewn
desert which separates the happy hunt
ing grounds from the vale of the liv
ing.
Here and there on the desert the cen
tury plant sends its stately stem from 15
to 18 feet in the air. Its bloom gives out
a delicate fragrance and in the early
morning hours before the sun has com
menced to heat up the sands numerous
somber-hued humming birds and butter
flies may be seen buzzing around the
blooming “centuries” and drinking in the
rectar their blossoms afford. Darting
across ycur path and running alon£ far \
in advance cf you may be seen LeConte’e;
thrasher, a bird closely akin to the brown ‘
thrasher of the east. This desert thrasher
is very shy and keeps well out of your!
way, darting in and out among the brush .
and all the time frantically jerking its !
tail ard uttering a sharp cry. This bird
Continued on eighth page
*
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