The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-07-06
1he Deserts of Southeast California

OF the one hundred and ~fftyseven
thousand square miles which compose
the area of California, abJut s.. 600
squar miles are desert. These do not
to any distinctive extent appear in the
northern and central part Of the state,
though as you approach the Nevada
line at all ATTITUDES the country as
sumes more sterile characteristics: but
when you Cr-ss the southern boundary
of Mono county, an extreme eastern
division of the state and about mid
way is length, you pass into a country
which gradually assumes those quail
ties and appearances which constitute
a desert the globe over. From a point
a.~ut thirty miles west of the forty
first larailel Of longitude and upon the
sJuth line of MonO county, southerly
t.yO hundred miles To the base of the
SIerre Madre range of mountains. east
to the Nevada line and the Colorado
river along the entire longitudinal dis
tance, the country is all desert. For
fifty miles inland following the bend of
the ocean beach at and below Los An
geleS there is a climate mper by
the sea-fogs and the cool salt breezes,
but these cannot climb the slopes of
the Sierra Madre, the San Be~rnardinO,
and the San JacintO mountains, so that
lllcllCE " <AIlZOlld ana SOUIn 10 the
Mexican line there is aridity, a parched
dryness and a dancing heat which op-
presses all animal life when the sun is
high, and radiates and disappears Don
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 even to WeirdneSS. 1t is not
generally barren, but is covered by the
most curious and remarkable vegeta-
ton. For a hundred miles o may ride
through orchards of the torch cactus,
its thick trunk supporting bare arms,
jOinted by like bare perpendicular
branches, standing in rough nakednesS
and stiffness. The yucca, whose CEN
trail stalk bears an abundance of pen
dulOuS white flowers, show the green
blade-leaves of the palm family up all
canOnS; and the thOrny meScal and the
Spanish dagger, the intricate brush of
greaseWo0d, 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 lllGll-
selves and cling to a reluctant exist
ence. 1t is a country, too, broken by
numberless and strange mountains
which generally show a b-arrenneSS, the
valleys do not display; in some parts
their sharp ridges and cragg 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 al
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 E. Bennett, Lippincitt's
Ma gaZine