One of the most peculiar phases of journalism is found in the desert region of California. There are, in the two great deserts of the State, four weekly papers, two in each desert. In the Mojave Desert are the _Randsburg Miner_, published in the gold-mining town of Randsburg, in the northern part of the desert, and the _Needles' Eye_, issued from the town of Needles on the eastern confines of the sandy waste. The Needles is the metropolis of the upper desert country, and the _Needles' Eye_ is the larger of the two papers published in this desert. The town has a peculiar history, inasmuch as in the first fifteen years of its existence it stood upon borrowed ground. In size the township is one and a half times as large as the State of Vermont. The village of Needles is about eight miles west of the Colorado River on the line of the Santa Fé Railroad. The main part of the village is situated upon Section 29 of the township, which is one of the sections included in the railway grant to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. The town grew naturally about the station, which was established at the time of the building of the Santa Fé road, and little thought was given to titles at that time. In time the town grew to the dignity of brick blocks, and still the titles remained with the railway company. Some ineffectual efforts were made on one or two occasions to secure titles to the lands from the railway people, but it was not until 1903 that a deal was made whereby the townsmen, in consideration of $43,000, secured deeds to the lands upon which stand their homes and business blocks. Needles has a population of two thousand souls. It is a mine outfitting town, furnishing supplies for a large and rich gold-mining district north of that locality. The _Needles' Eye_, which is an eight-page journal, is a wide-awake organ owned, printed, and edited by L. V. Root, a native of Michigan, but a resident of the Southwest since 1892. He formerly edited the _New Mexico Gleaner_ and is familiar with frontier journalism. His paper is devoted to the local interests of the town and to the mining districts of that region. [Illustration: YEAR-OLD WILLOW TREES AT INTERNATIONAL LINE] Randsburg is a typical mining town with desert accessories. It is the chief town of the gold-mining district known as the "American Rand," and has but one rival in the district, Johannesburg, which is close to it in size and importance, but which has not yet arrived at the dignity of a newspaper. The _Miner_ is a four-page weekly devoted to the news of the mines and to local items. It has few features of interest outside the locality in which it is published. In the Colorado Desert journalism attains an unusual degree of uniqueness. Both papers published in that region are printed below the level of the sea.