The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1893-02-22
THE MoJAvE DESERT.
"A Vivid Description of 1t by a Private
Correspondents.

Correspondent.
An extract, which we are permitted
to take from letter from Norman G.
Wilson, who is collecting plants and
specimens for the Botanical gardens at
Berkley, Cal, gives US a glimpse of the
"Maiove Desert" which may not be un-
interesting to our readers. He says s'As
I came rolling across the desert, little
over week ago, thought of my prom
ise TO give you some descriptions of it,
and, between spells of reading ssNature's
Serial Story" looked out upon one of
the strangest sights lever beheld. The
Moiave Desert is not barren. There is
kind of 'grease-wood" and s'creosote
bush," which divide the honor with the
cactus family of clothing the desert in :
sombre and fantastic:drees. Neither is it
level, but is relieved by mountain ranges,
the very climax of ruggedness and use
lessness. There is one redeeming fea-
ture about the whole scene. Never have
/ seen such atmospheric effects in color
ing, and never have seen such ragged
crags, such heaps of rocks, in such fam
tastic shapes, such barrenness spread
over growth of shrubs, such seeming
utter worthiessness, to need the kindly
touches of a wonderful atmosphere, to
lend some beauty to mountain and valley
scenery. In the foreground, supposing
that we are in the middle of plain, the
ground presents a yellowish, clayey color,
set off with the gray and brown, in many
shades, of the desert shrub, cacti Zone
Variety loom up in places, almost like
Istunted pines, the tops more rounded
out, and not SO tall. In other cases,
they seem to obey no order or law of
nature but to be fantastic. So stretches
the plain for miles and miles. We come
to- glistening lake, it reaches away for
miles In front and to right and left, but
as we dash into it, the only spray is
sand. It has blush look, and reflects
the sunlight as though it were water,
but the sand holds full sway and is col
tored by deposits of alkali. hard blue,
glistening and to the weary, water
starved traveller merciless. Yet it is
lake, great lake Again we lose all
lplant life, miles of rock, and it seems to
have been tamped down, SO smooth is
/ its surface. The color here is brown
deepening to black. 1t seems as though
q fire had swept lover the whole expanse,
spreading thin layer of pitch over rock
and pebble, which has since petrified
and become part of the rock itself.
but looking away in the distance. who
can paint with brush or pen, the won-
derful CHANGES from terrible ugliness
to surpassing beauty, can give the
touches which clothe the desert In beau
tiful mystery, the vast, the ugly, the
deadly, yet beautiful unexplored, mys-
terious desert? Surely not the .'col-
leetor' in overaIls plucked too soon,
Redeemed boots, shabby hat and coat,
iand unshaven chin, who is taken for .
t'trampn wherever he goes. Such des-
ultory thoughts ran through my mind,
az crossed the desert. have since
iexplored it enough to find that its mys-
ttery is chiefly death and desolation, that
its poetry and beauty ON more close
acquaintance, are but the Turing forces
that draw men on to destruction the
most terrible.