The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-06
The Desert. of Southeast California

Of the me hundred and ~hftyseven
thousand square miles which compose
the area % California, about 5000
square miles are desert These DO not
10 Z distinctive extent appear IN the
northern and central part OF the state,
though as you approach the Nevada
line at all latitudes the country as
sumes more sterile characteristics; but
when You cross the southern boundary
o. Mono county, an extreme eastern
division Of the state and about mid
way its length, you Ass into a ountr
which gradually assumes those quail
ties and appearances which constitute
a desert the globe over. From q point
about thirty miles west Of the forty
first parallel OF longitude and upon the
south line Of Mono county. s~outherly
" hundred miles TO ms base of the
Slerre Madre range Of mountains, cas-
% n Nevada line and the Colorado
river along the entire longitudinal dis
lance, the country is all desert. For
fifty miles inland following the bend OF
the ocean beach al and below Los An
geles there is a climate tempered by
the sea-fogs and the cool salt breezes.
out these mo climb the slopes of
the Sierra Madre, the San Bernardino,
and the San JacintO mountains, 50 that
thence 10 Arizona and south to the
Mexican line there is aridity, a parched
dryness and a dancing heat which OPP
presses all animal life when the sun is
high, and radiates and disappears Dor
after the sun has set, SO that even the
summer nights are cool, and in winter
there is a freezing temperature.
The general aspect of this country is
strange e TO WeirdneSS. 1t is not
generally barren, but is covered by the
most curious and remarkable Vegeta-
ton. For a hundred miles you may ride
through orchards of the torch cactus,
its thick trunk supporting bare arms,
j0inted by like bare perpendicular
branches. standing in rough nakedness
and stiffness. The yucca, whose cen
ira stalk bears an abundance of PEN
dulous white flowers, shows the green
blade-ieayes Of the palm family up all
anons n the thOrny mescal and the
Spanish dagger, the intricate brush of
greasewOcd, the scrubby mesquite, the
white sage, and the :nnumerable
grasses which in tufts and punches
checker here and there a BROAD sweep
Of baroness, all make up a tiara as Gu
rious as it is wonderful. Even in re-
gions of the maximum aridity, where
the fierceness of the suns rays is in
tolerable to life above the grade of a
lizard, some defiant organisms of the
vegetable kingdom will sustain them
selves and cling to a reluctant exist
ence. 1t is a country, too, broken by
numberless and strange mountains
which generally show a barrenness the
valleys do not display; in some parts
their sharp ridges and raggy peaks
will line a broad valley in continuous
chain for many miles: again they will
stand at varying heights, isolated high
round cones or low broad Jumps, leap
ing suddenly from the fiat surface as
though they We're set there by some
enormous hand like giant bee hives.
The country shows everywhere evil
dences Of the most turbulent activities
Of fire occurring in past geological ages.
Some of the plains are mere ashes,
while the mountains and elevations are
black lava. IgneOus bikes plunge here
and there through sand stone, and the
acid granite caps country rock blown
out into peaks piercing far in the pale
heavens.-John Z. Bennett, Lippincitt's
Magazine.