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Show CHAPTER XIV. THE PKADEKA AND GUANO BEDS. From my first chapter on Lower California I may have left the impression on the minds of my readers that the entire peninsula is a waste of desolation or tb& t ,' in anathema of sterility had withered the whole country. This would not be the truth. As we near the southwest ern coast the land struggles to shed more vegetation and we begin to experience a mild, soft and almost langurous air. The palo verde, the mesquite, the giant sahuaros and many varieties of the cacti gradually appear. Along the eastern coast the land is yet more covered with mesquite trees, and malma and bunch grass above which looms the columnar pithahaya. The mesas or table lands of sand have here and there groo and gramma grasses. Then, as we climb the mountains we meet scrub oak and Hll juniper, till at an elevation of 6,000 feet we enter the pine lands. Owing to the peculiarity of the river beds which run through loose quarternary deposits the water which flows down the mountains during the rainy seasons disappears in the porous earth, seeks under ground channels, and after following its subterranean course for many miles, is lost entirely or comes again to the surface where the older formation rises or is crossed by a dyke forming a natural dam. By reason of the clearness of the atmosphere and the absence of all foreign substances in the air distances are deceptive and appearances delusive. Small objects, such as the outlines of an isolated mound, the face of a pro jecting rock or a browsing steer loom large and stand |