The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-11-23
LOWER CALIFORNIA DESERTS.
Continued from PAGE ~

Continued from Page ~
oppression on the mind of the interminable desc
lation and solitude carry melancholy to the soul
and the weakened mind breaks down.
STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN
1t IS what happens, at times, to men who go
out on the desert; they perish and are heard of
no more. The drifting sand covers them and when
years after their burial hurricane of wind races
over the desert, it scatters the sand which hid
them, opens the grave as it were, and carrying the
bodies with 1t, separates the bones and drops them
mere and there on the bosom of the ocean of sand
"A curious thing" continued Don Estaban chap
pens when the strong winds blow on the desert. a
something occurs which always reminds me of the
continuous presence of God everywhere and of
His providence Does not the Bible somewhere
speak of the birds which the Heavenly Father feed
eth and the lilies of the field which He cares for.
Well, the desert plants are living proof of Gods
love for all created things
When these sandstorms are due and before
they rush in upon the mighty waste of silence and
sand the cacti and the flower bearing plants droop
down and lie low along the earth. Then when the
storms have passed, the plants slowly, cautiously
as If to make sure their enemy is gone rise again
to their full height Only the mesquite and grease
wood of toughened and hardened fibre refuse to
bow down to the tyrant of the hurricane and un-
less torn up by the roots they never yield But
the cact, save alone the ptahaya of giant
strength, trembe at the approach of the storm
contract, shrivel up and then lie low upon the
ground.
THE ROLLING CACTUS.
81 have often, in my tramps across deserts,
stopped and examined cactus which we call the
'Rodillo:' 1t has roots, is perfectly rounded
and its spires or needles for some mysterious rea-
son, point inward as if its enemy we're within it
self. Unless it draws its nourishment from the
air do not know how it survives. 1t is the play
thing of the winds When the sand storm riots in
the desert the wind plays with the RodiIlo' and
rolls it along forty or fifty miles,
Glow often do these storms come, Senior
Guiteras!"
"Well, it's this way; for your winters in the
north you have and ice, in the south they
have rain; here on our deserts we have Winds ami
these winds with us for three months mild as
a breeze today, and tomorrow rushing with the
speed of hurricane. But to come back to the
'Rodillo.' When the storm of wind has lifted, this
ball cactus is left on the desert and if during the
few rootlets, gets grip somewhere in the sand
till its flowers and seeds, and is off again with the
next wind
rs there any hope for man if he runs short
Of water forty fifty miles out in the DESERT"
"a man." replied my host "who is taught to
desert ways never dies of thirst. An Indian will
enter desert stretching away for two hundred
miles, carrying with him neither food nor water,
and yet it is a thing unheard of for an Indian to
go mad on the sandy waste, or die of hunger or
thirst. God in His kindness and providence has
made provision for man and animal, even in the
great deserts. There is no desolation of sand so
utterly bare and barren that here and there upon
its forbidden surface there may not be, found
patches of the crossword, the mesquite and the
cactus. Now the cholla, and tuna, and the most Of
the cacti, bear fruit in season. and from these
fruits the Indians make score of dainty dishes.
Even when not bearing, their banks and roots,
when properly prepared, will support life. Nor
need any man die Of thirst, for the pitahaya and
suaharo cacti are reservoirs of water, COOL fresh
and plentiful. But then, one must know how to
tap the stream. By plunging knife into the
heart the water begins to ooze out slowly and
satisfactorily, but still enough comes to
mans life OF course, you know that the man ia
miliar with the moods of the desert never travels
without can, matches and Ratchet. When he is
running short of water he makes for the nearest
bunch of coumnar cact, as the pitahaya and sua-
haro are called by us. He selects his tree and cuts
it down, having already made two fires eight or
ten feet apart. Then he makes large incision in
the middle of the tree, cuts off the butt and the
end and places the log between the fires, end to
end The heat of the fires drives the water in the
log to its centre when it begins to flow from the
cut already made, into his can. It is by this meth
cd the Indian and the expert desert traveller re-
news his supply of water"
Communing with myself on the way to my no.
tel [ said: $50, after all is said and done, educa