Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1903-05-06
A LAND OF LITTLE RAIN.
1EATHsVALLEY THE LoNELlEsT
q REGION IN THE WORLD.

q - 6ESlON I'm TIE WSnGNs
The PaIpabls Sense Of Mystery in the
fDesertgAlr Breeds Fables Chiefly OF
LostsTreasure-HiIIs That Have the
Lotusscharm.
Properly equipped, 1t IS possible to
so safely across that ghastly sink
Death fvalley-the .Armagosa desert
In eastern California;, yet every year
1t takes Its toll Of death, and yet men
find there sun-dried mummies, OF,
whom no trace or recollection is, pre-
served 70 und derestimate ones thirst
to pass given landmark to the right
or left, t,sto ind a DR. string where one
looked for running water-there is mo-
help for any of these things
Along springs and sunken water
coursesso one is surprised to find such
water-Ioyings plants as grow widely in
moist ground, but the true desert
breeds its own kind, each: An it's particu-
lar habitat. . The anglesof the slope,
the frontage of hill, the structure OF
the soft determines the plant. South
hooking hills are nearly bare and the,
gtree-line higher here sby&a Thousand
fleet Canyons running east and west
will haYes'one wall naked and one
! clothed Around. dry lakes ad marshes
the herbage preserves set and order
~ arrangement. Most species have
well defined areas Of growth, the best
index the voice3ess land can give the
traveller OF his whereabouts.
Nothing the desert produces ex-
presses itA better than the unhappy
growth Of the tree yuccas. Tormented,
thin forests of It stalk drearily in the
ahigh mesas,, particularly in that tri-
angular slit that fans out eastward
from theEmeeting OF the Sicrras and
coastwise mills where the first swings
across the southern end of the San,
Joaquin valley. The yucca bustles. with
bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green,
growing Shaggy with age. tipped with
panicles oEfetid .greenish bloom. After
death, which istslow, the ghostly, hol-
low network of It's woody skeleton,
with hardly power to rot makes the
moonlight fearful. Before this yucca
has come to full flower the Indians
roast its buds for their own delectation.
Other yucsas, cacti, low herbs, thous-
and Sorts one finds journeying east
from the coastwise, hills. There is
neither poverty of soil nor species to
account for the sparseness of desert
growth, but simply that each plant re-
quires more rooG2, So much earth must
must be apre-empted to extract SO
much moisture. The real struggle for
existence, 1.-THE real brain Of the plant,
is underground; above there is room
for a roHndea, perfect growth. In
Death valley. reputed the very core of
desolations are nearly two hundred
identified Sspecies. Above tne tree-line,
which L is also the snow line, mapped
sout abruptly by. the sun, one finds
spreading growth Of pinon, juniper
branched 1early to the ground, lilac,
sage. aaS azhits. pine.
There is no special preponderance OF
self-fertilized or wind fertilized plants,
but everyweher the demand for and
evidence of insect life. Now where
there are seeds and insects there will
be birds and small mammals, and
where these are, will come the sinking
sharp-toothed; kind that prey on them.
60 as far as you dare in the heart OF
q lonely land, you can not go so far
that life and death are not before you.
Painted lizards slip in and out of rock
crevices, and pant on the white, hot
sands. Birds, humming-birds even,
pest in the cactus scrub; woodpeckers
befriend the demoniac yuccas; out of,
the stark, treeless waste rings the mu-
sic of the night-singing mocking-bird. If
1t be summer and the sun wsll down,
there will be a burrowing owl to call.
Strange, furry, tricksy things dart
across the open places, or sit motion
less in the coming towers Of the creo-
sote.
The poet may have named all the
birdswithout a gun" but not the fairy
footed, ground-inhabiting furtive,
small folk of.the rainless regions. They
are too many and too swift; how many
you would not believe without seeing
the footprint tracings in the sand. They
are nearly all night workers, finding
the days too hot and white. In mid-des-
ert, where there are no cattle, there
are no birds of carrion, but if you go
far in that direction the chances are
that you will find yourself shadowed
by their tilted wings. Nothing so large
as a man can move unspied upon that
country, and they know well how the
land deals with strangers. There are
hints to be had here of the way in
which land forces new habits on its
dwellers.
If one is inclined to wonder at first
how so many dwellers came to be in
theeloneliest land that ever came out
of Gods hands, what they do there,
and why stay, one does not wonder so
much after having lived there. None
other than35this lone brown land lays
such holdson the affections The rain
bow hills, the tender, blush mists, the
luminous radiance Of the spring. have
the lotus charm. They trick the sense
of time, so that once inhabiting there
you always mean to go away without
quite realizing that you have not done
1t. Men who have lived there. miners
and cattlemen, will tell you this, not
so fluently, but emphatically, cursing
the land and going back to it. For one
thing there is the divinest, cleanest air
to be breathed anywhere in Gods
world. Some day the: world will under
4Lat 4Lo littla tho