Omaha daily bee., 1909-02-21
SOUND WAVES IN DESERT
Silence Enables Men to Converse
Though a Mile Apart.
WONDERS OF SUNRISE MIRAGE
Moving Picture shows I'm a Region
Where Trees Have No Leaves and
Cacti Burn ms II Wet with
Kerosene,

Talk about wireless telephones. The
Colorado desert goes science one better in
that line. According to travellers in that
neck OF sand and sagebrush, you can dis
pense with any kin Of telephone, with or
without wires, at least up to a certain
distance.
W men a mile apart can carry on a
conversation in an ordinary tone of voice.
particularly If there happens to be a small
hill behind each. The prevailing silence
Is 80 intense that it might be called deafen-
ing.
Perhaps. after all. the weirdest among
many strange features OF the desert is the
mirage. We rave camped perhaps, and
gone to bed early in the evening, with the
Thermometer registering not far below the
hundred mark. We awake, shivering with
cold beneath our blankets, and look toward
the east.
There is the slightest suggestion Of light
In the sky there. which as we watch grows
slowly in strength; a grayish haze marks
the horizon's edge, which stands out more
sharply at one point from which broad.
pale rays creep up and out high above in
the sky. These again slowly fade as a
point OF brilliant light appears at their
base. This point grows to a half circle;
then breaks and runs along tie skyline in
a surging. golden lake.
Upon the shores of this lake cities spring
up. towers. spires and solid blocks; these
fade into fields and forests and farming
scenes; fields Of golden grain. cattle stand
ing in green alfalfa, sheets of water. The
mountains near the edge of the AXE sera-
rate from their bases and float upward,
topple over and stand on their heads. their
unwieldy feet in air.
Passing OF the Picture Bubble.
Soon our lax begins TO contract and col
iect into a big, round ball OF dazzling bril-
lance hung !ust above the horizon. Farms
and forest disappear; the mountains. as
though abashed at being caught in such
an unseemly attitude by the broad light
OF day. quickly resume their normal posi-
ton. while all the stark landscape stiffens
iLto unstirring endurance OF the garish
light and blazing heat Of the desert sun.
The mirage Il gone like a bubble; only the
grsy desert remains
The Colorado desert Is the name given to
slime 1000 square miles of drifting sand
end rocky mounds tucked away in the far
southeastern corner Of the state of magni-
fietnt distances. Emerging out OF the
Mojave on the north. II stretches away a
hundred miles wide between the Colorado
river and the San Jacinto range Of noun.
tains, across the boundary line OF Mexico
TO 10 definite termination in Lower Cali
fornia-
II Is as true d desert as absence of water,
animal and vegetable life and the pr ssenee
of shifting sand and scorehing heat can
make. To the west it Is barred from the
fertile coast lands by ranges Of mountains
which turn 10 the desert such rugged and
precipitous faces thai there are but three
places in 100 miles where a wagon can find
a way down.
What vegetation there is In the desert
below is Of a most peculiar type. Cactus
Is present In all shapes. from a round ball
the size OF ones head to tall thin stalks
ten feet in height. The balls when chopped
open with an axe, which will sometimes
rebound from their tough s~urface, are
fouI d to contain g spoI gelike pulp soaked
with water. They are said to have been
the means CT saving the lives Of many
threatened with death from thirst
Atmospheric Effects.
Then there are varieties that grow in
~sausagelike; the links maturing and
dropping to the sand. where they take root
TO make another plant. They are provided
with needle pointed barbed thorns that
pierce heavy leather shoes as though they
W.srs made OF paper. There are small deli
cafe members OF the family which al first
sight lead one TO believe that he has at
last found a cactus without thorns. They