[Illustration: TEAMING IN DEATH VALLEY From photograph by C. C. Pierce & Co.] The Mystic Mid-Region The Deserts of the Southwest By Arthur J. Burdick With 54 Illustrations G. P. Putnam's Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press 1904 COPYRIGHT, 1904 BY ARTHUR J. BURDICK Published, April, 1904 The Knickerbocker Press, New York Kingdom of solitude, thou desert vast, The keeper thou of secrets of the past, For what, O Desert, was thy land accurs'd? Thy rivers dried, thy fields consumed by thirst? Thy plains in mute appeal unfruitful lie Beneath a burning, stern, relentless sky That brings its showers of life-renewing rain Unto the mount, but ne'er unto the plain. What secret guardest thou, O Desert dread? What mystery hidest of the ages dead? Doth some strange treasure lie within thy breast That thou wouldst guard from man's most eager quest? Or doth there in thy solitude abide Some mystery that Nature fain would hide? Some secret of the great creative plan Too deep, too awful for the mind of man? O Desert, with thy hot, consuming breath, Whose glance is torture and whose smile is death, Realm of the dewless night and cloudless sun, Burn on until thine awful watch be done. Then may the shifting winds their off'rings bring-- The yielding clouds their life-fraught dews to fling Upon thy yearning, panting, scorching breast, That with abundance thou at last be bless'd. So, where thy wasted sands now barren lie, Green fields may some day meet a smiling sky. Where now but lurks grim, ghastly, burning death, The violet may shed its fragrant breath. It hath been said--a sure, divine decree-- That in the solitude shall gladness be; And, by that One from whom all goodness flows, That thou shalt bloom, O Desert, as the rose. A. J. B. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I.--THE DESERT 1 II.--THE LAND OF THIRST 17 III.--CURIOUS PLANTS WHICH LIVE IN THE DESERT 38 IV.--STRANGE DWELLERS OF THE DESERT 60 V.--HUMANITY IN THE DESERT 68 VI.--A FUNERAL IN THE REGION OF DEATH 80 VII.--DESERT BASKET-MAKERS 92 VIII.--SHIPS OF THE DESERT 107 IX.--THE STORY OF A STREAK OF YELLOW 124 X.--DESERT BORAX MINES 142 XI.--OTHER MINERALS FOUND IN THE DESERT 154 XII.--A REMARKABLE HARVEST-FIELD 162 XIII.--DEATH VALLEY 172