*SHIPS OF THE DESERT 113 *BEARING THE RED MAN'S BURDEN 117 *TAKING ON THE CARGO 121 *THE PROSPECTOR SETS FORTH 125 *AN AGED PROSPECTOR AT MOUTH OF HIS MINE 129 *AN ANXIOUS MOMENT--LOOKING FOR THE YELLOW STREAK 133 *AN AËRIAL FERRY--PROSPECTORS CROSSING COLORADO RIVER 137 *A TRACTION ENGINE HAULING BORAX FROM DEATH VALLEY 143 *THE PAINTED DESERT 147 *A MONUMENT IN THE LAND OF THIRST 151 *A TYPICAL DESERT MINING TOWN 155 PLOWING SALT IN COLORADO DESERT 163 *TEAMING IN DEATH VALLEY 173 INDIAN CHIEF LYING IN STATE 179 A DESERT POTTERY FACTORY 191 BLACK BUTTES--PHANTOM SHIP OF THE DESERT 197 DIGGING THE IMPERIAL CANAL 203 IMPERIAL CHURCH--FIRST WOODEN BUILDING IN LOWER COLORADO DESERT 207 YEAR-OLD WILLOW TREES AT INTERNATIONAL LINE 211 IRRIGATING DESERT LAND 219 DESERT SORGHUM 223 MILO MAIZE ON RECLAIMED DESERT LAND NEAR HEBER 227 ADOBE HOTEL, CALEXICO, WHICH HAS THE ONLY SHOWER BATH IN THE DESERT 231 * From photographs reproduced by permission of C. C. Pierce & Co. THE MYSTIC MID-REGION CHAPTER I THE DESERT Between the lofty ranges of mountains which mark the western boundary of the great Mississippi Valley and the chain of peaks known as the Coast Range, whose western sunny slopes look out over the waters of the placid Pacific, lies a vast stretch of country once known as the "Great American Desert." A few years ago, before the railroad had pierced the fastness of the great West, explorers told of a vast waste of country devoid of water and useful vegetation, the depository of fields of alkali, beds of niter, mountains of borax, and plains of poison-impregnated sands. The bitter sage, the thorny cacti, and the gnarled mesquite were the tantalizing species of herbs said to abound in the region, and the centipede, the rattlesnake, tarantula, and Gila monster represented the life of this desolate territory.