Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-03-02
The Colorado ne.ert.

The plain is not of vast extent laterally.
Black and purplish mountains are always in
sight, and spurs of them cross the course.
Bowlders and pebbles are scattered thickly
on the surface at first, among patches of
bunch grass; then the jaws of the black and
purple mountains open, near Seven Palms,
and show the genuine white sand desert,
strewn with powders still, but bare of vege-
tation, and varied with dunes and large hills
of clean sand One expects a glimpse of
blue water between the dunes at every mo-
ment, as if riding to Coney Island or Long
Branch. We traverse singular depression,
which is below the level of the sea for a hun
dred miles, at its lowest point nearly three
hundred feet. At Dos Palmas, in the very
bottom of the pit, board shanty saloon,
covered with inscriptions in an amateurish
lettering, stands alone at a little distance
from the track. Surely the keeper of it must
consume his own drinks, and lead melan-
choly existence unprecedented among bar
keepers. No; horseman in Mexican ac-
coutrements dashes across the plain-though
where he should dash from, and how he
should be riding anything but the mummy
of a dolphin or a ea-horse here in the very
bottom OF the sea itself, is a mystery and
pulls up there, and enters. And it further
appe ars that from this place a stage starts
every other day for points on the Colorado
| river and for Prescott, the remote capital of
Arizona Territory. This is but a faint sur
yival of hustle which once reigned before
tue day of the railroad, when the route of
the southern overland mail was hither, and
long trains of immigrants carrying water in
casks for two and three days supply, passed
continually over these wastes east and west.
Nothing would appear more depressing on
general principles than such a country, but
as matter of fact it is entertaining instead
1t is a stimulus to the curiosity, ana ends by
| having real fascination. One would not
wish to be abandoned alone in it without re.
sources, it is true, but he does not tire of
looking at it from car window. Its blazing
dryness is in its favor. 1t is disinfectant and
| preservatve. Perhaps there can never be
the most poignant extreme of sadness in
scenes without the element of decay by
dAmpness. 1t is chemical and not botanical
processes that are principally going on. Won
| ders of almost any sort may be expected
| Phantoms might fit about over it, hiding
among the frequent mirages.
Aconsiderable part of Arizona as well is of
the same character, but it is estimated by
competent authority that with irrigation 81
per cent can be redeemed for agriculture
and 60 per cent for pasturage. 1t may be
called to mind that even the apparently
| hopeless bottom of the Colorado desert, be-
low the level of the sea, is also below the
level of the Colorado river, and that water
from this copious stream might be spared
for it, and spread over it with comparative
ease. The truly patriotic resident of Arizo-
na is by no means ashamed of his encom-
| passing desert, and with reason. 1t is in re-
ality laboratory of useful products. Paper
is made from tine yucca, or Spanish bayonet
which abounds in certain parts of it. There
are tracts of salt, borax, gypsum, sulphur,
asbestos, and kaolin and quarries of pumice-
maintained also that it has deposits of the
| same precious metals which, mined in places
where water is more accessible, have given
the territory the fame it enjoys. -Harper'S
! Magazine for March,