The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1909-02-17
MANY STRANGE FEATURES THAT
ASTONISH THE TOURISTS
IN COLORADO,
Where Two Men a Mile Apart Can
Converse in an Ordinary Tone
of Voice. The Beautiful Mi
rage of the Sunrise.

rage of the Sunrise.
Talk about wireless telephones!
The Colorado desert goes science one
better than that, writes Harvey Kes-
sler in the Travel Magazine. Ac-
cording to travellers in that neck of
sand and sagebrush you can dispense
with any kind of telephone, with or
without wires, at least up to a GER
tain distance.
Two men a mile apart can carry
on a conversation in an ordinary tone
of voice, particularly if there hap
pens to be small hill behind each.
The prevailing silence is SO intense
that it might be called deafening.
Perhaps, after all, the weirdest
among many strange features of the
desert is the mirage We have
camped perhaps, and gone to bed
early in the evening, with the Their
mometer registering not far below
the hundred mark. We awake, shiv-
ering 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 horizons
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 the skyline in a surging, gol-
den lake.
Upon the shores of this lake cities
spring up, towers, spires and solid
blocks; these fade into fields and for
ests and farming scenes; fields of
golden grain, cattle standing in green
alfalfa, sheets of water. The mount
aims near the edge of the lake sepa-
rate from their bases and float up
ward, tOpple over and stand on their
heads, their unWieldy feet in air.
Soon our lake begins to contract
and collect into big, round ball of
dazzling brilliance hung just above
the horizon. Farms and forest dis
appear, the mountains, as though
abashed at being caught in such an
unSeemly attitude by the broad light
of day, quickly resume their normal
position, while all the stark land
scape stiffens into unstirring endur-
ance of the garish light and blazing
heat of the desert sun. The mirage
is gone like bubble; only the gray
desert remains.
What the Desert Is Like
The Colorado desert is the name
given to some 1000 square miles OF
drifting sand and rocky mound
tucked away in the far southeastern
corner of the state of magnificent
distances. Emerging out of the Mo
jave on the north, it stretches away
hundred miles wide between the
Colorado river and the San JacintC
range of mountains, across the bOun.
dairy line of Mexico to no definite
termination in Lower California
1t is as true a desert as absence
of water, animal and vegetable life
and the presence of shifting sand and
scorching heat can make. To the
west it is barred from the fertile
coast lands by ranges of mountains
"hlCA IuI IL W Tic uCSCi / ollCli luSSCN
and precipitous faces that there are
but three places in hundred 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 10
feet in height The balls, when
chopped open with an ak, which will
sometimes rebound from their tough
surface, are found to contain a
spOnge-like pulp soaked with water.
They are said to have been the means
of saving the lives of many threat
ened with death from thirst.
Then there are varieties that grow
in links, sausage-like; the links ma
turing and dropping to the sand,
where they take root to make anOth-
er plant. They are provided with
needle pointed barbed thorns that
pierce heavy leather shoes as though
they were made of paper. There are
small delicate members of the family
which at first sight leads one to be-
lieVe that at last he has found cac-
tus without thorns. They are soft
and velvety to the touch, but when
one examines his hands after hand
ling them he will find the skin full
of microscopic thOrns.
Most cacti are so inflammable that
if lighted match is applied to them
they blaze up as if soaked with kero-
sene.
When an animal dies here the car
Cass does not decay, but dries up and