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Show BY PATH AND TRAIL. 87 his senses attempts the crossing of a great desert during the day. The sun would roast him, the sands, hot as vol-acnic ash, would burn him up, and he could not carry enough water to meet the evaporation from his body. For half the night I made good progress, so good indeed that I began to whisper to myself that before 8 o ' clock of the morning I would strike the foothills of the Sierras Blan-cas and leave the desert behind me. ' 1 Perhaps I had been pushing myself too much, or it may be that I was not in the best of condition, but about 3 in the morning I sat down to rest. I was traveling light and brought with me only enough water and food to last me fourteen hours, knowing that when I reached the Blancas I could find the mining camp of Pedro Marrila. To a meditative man, the desert at night has a charm deepening into a fascination. The intense and sustained silence, the great solitude, the limitless expansion of white sand glistening under a bright moon, and innum erable stars of wondrous brilliancy strangely affect the mind and bear in upon the soul a sensation of awe, of reverence and a consciousness of the presence of God. " After a time, an inexpressible sense of drowsiness possessed me. I had often traveled far on deserts, but never before had I felt so utterly tired and sleepy. I re membered saying to myself, ' Just for a half hour/ and when I awoke the sun was rising over the mountains. I rose to my feet, blessed myself, and moved on, knowing I was going to have a hard fight of it. " At 10 o'clock the heat was that of a smelting fur nace. As" I walked my feet sank in the yielding sand. I was very thirsty, but I could not touch the water in my canteen, treasuring it as a miser his gold. The blazing sun sucked away all perspiration, before it had time to |