We are approaching one of the hottest parts of the California deserts, Death Valley, in search of perhaps the spiniest and most dangerous of all the Cholla, the Golden Spined Jumping Cholla. Four to eight feet tall, with numerous stout fantastic arms seemingly pointed at each tenderfoot tourist hurrying across the desert, like unholy messengers of evil omen, this remarkable cactus is very conspicuous in its rocky habitats. It grows luxuriantly in all the hottest locations on our American desert, Coachella and Imperial valleys in Southern California, southwestern Arizona, as well as here before us in the sweltering heat of that great cañon so aptly designated as our “Death Valley” of the Southland. With his dense armor of interlocking thorns _Bigelovii_ is immune to grazing animals or rodents, nor is he injured by the extreme heat or light of the hottest desert lands; all the spines, an inch and a half long or longer, are light golden-yellow, glistening in the brilliant sunlight of cactus land and easily recognized from afar. Loose, papery, straw-colored sheaths cover them and the stout sharp thorns are nearly always broken off in a strong wind, or with the slightest disturbance, and stick to one’s clothing as readily as burrs; then once they get lodged in the flesh are difficult and exceedingly painful to extract. They form a golden shield for the lovely blossoms, an inch or more in length, pale green or yellow-green suffused with tints of purple. This member of the Cholla clan reproduces himself very readily, for the loosely attached young joints, falling to the ground, take root and grow into new young plants. The Golden Spined Jumping Cholla and also the common Jumping Cholla are sanctuaries where the desert wren can build her nest and rear her young undisturbed among the thorns; there, too, the chuckwalla, a large lizard, can rest in peace, safe from attack of animal enemy and protected from the burning heat and fierce desert winds that sometimes sweep across the mesas and down the mountain cañons, in the great amphitheater of the sun. Many Colored Tree Cholla (_Opuntia versicolor_) _Western and Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico_