Part 1 (1/2)

The Desert Home

by Mayne Reid

CHAPTER ONE

THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT

There is a great desert in the interior of North Ae as the fa, and a thousand wide Now, if it were of a regular shape--that is to say, a parallelograth upon the breadth; and you would obtain one million and a half for the result--one million and a half of square miles But its outlines are as yet very ih it is fully fifteen hundred , and in some places a thousand in breadth, its surface-extent is probably not over one land Fancy a desert twenty-five tiland! Do you not think that it has received a most appropriate name when it is called the _Great A friend, what do you understand by a desert? I think I can guess When you read or hear of a desert, you think of a vast level plain, covered with sand, and without trees, or grass, or _any_ kind of vegetation You think, also, of this sand being blown about in thick yellow clouds, and no water to be met with in any direction This is your idea of a desert, is it not? Well, it is not altogether the correct one It is true that in almost every desert there are these sandy plains, yet are there other parts of its surface of a far different character, equally deserving the nareat Saara has not been fully explored, enough is known of it to prove that it contains large tracts of mountainous and hilly country, with rocks and valleys, lakes, rivers, and springs

There are, also, fertile spots, at wide distances from each other, covered with trees, and shrubs, and beautiful vegetation Soe extent, and inhabited by independent tribes, and even whole kingdoms of people A fertile tract of this kind is called an oasis; and, by looking at your map, you will perceive that there are many oases in the Saara of Africa

Of a similar character is the Great American Desert; but its surface is still raphical features”

There are plains--some of the but white sand, often drifting about on the wind, and here and there thrown into long ridges such as those e, where no sand appears, but brown barren earth utterly destitute of vegetation There are others, again, on which grows a stunted shrub with leaves of a pale silvery colour In so its twisted and knotty branches, that a horse thee or ood,--and the plains upon which it grows are called by the hunters, who cross thee prairies_ Other plains are met with that present a black aspect to the traveller These are covered with lava, that at some distant period of time has been vomited forth from volcanic ments like the stones upon a new-made road Still other plains present themselves in the American Desert Some are white, as if snow had fallen freshly upon them, and yet it is not snow, but salt! Yes; pure white salt-- covering the ground six inches deep, and for fifty ain, have a similar appearance; but instead of salt, you find the substance which covers them to be soda--a beautiful efflorescence of soda!

There are mountains, too--indeed, one-half of this Desert is very reat chain of the Rocky Mountains--of which you have no doubt heard--runs sheer through it from north to south, and divides it into two nearly equal parts But there are other ht, and so and singular appearance Soes like the roofs of houses, and seeht sit astride of theain, of a conical form, stand out in the plain apart from the rest, and look like teacups turned upside down in the middle of a table

Then there are sharp peaks that shoot upward like needles, and others shaped like the doreat cathedral--like the dome of Saint Paul's These reen, or blue when seen from a distance They are of this colour when covered by forests of pine or cedar, both of which trees are found in great plenty a the mountains of the Desert

There are etation along their sides Huge naked rocks of granite appear piled upon each other, or jutting out over dark and frowning chasms There are peaks perfectly white, because they are covered with a thick reatest distance, as the snow lying upon the proves them to be of vast elevation above the level of the sea There are other peaks almost as white, and yet it is not with snow They are of ain sea their sides These are mountains of pure liain, upon which neither tree nor leaf is to be; seen; but, in their stead, the reen and yellow and white, appearing in stripes along their sides, as though they had been freshly painted These stripes mark the strata of different coloured rocks, of which the mountains are composed And there are still other mountains in the Great Ae appearance They are those that glitter with the mica and selenite These, when seen froh they were e rivers are they Soe rivers--hundreds of yards in width, with sparkling waters Follow therowing larger, like the rivers of your own land, they becoth their waters sink into the sands, and you see nothing but the dry channel for ain the water appears, and increases in volue shi+ps can float upon their bosom

Such are the Arkansas and the Platte

There are other rivers that run between bleak, rocky banks--banks a thousand feet high, whose bald, naked ”bluffs” frown at each other across the deep chasm, in the bottom of which roars the troubled water

Often these banks extend for hundreds of o down to the bed of their stream; and often--often-- the traveller has perished with thirst, while the roar of their water was sounding in his ears! Such are the Colorado and the Snake

Still others go sweeping through the broad plains, tearing up the clay with theirtheir channels, until they are sometimes an hundredfor round--under vast rafts formed by the trees which they have borne doard in their current

There you find thereat serpent, rolling sluggishly along, aters red and turbid as though they were rivers of blood! Such are the Brazos and the Red River

Strange rivers are they that struggle through the mountains, and valleys, and plateau-lands of the Great Ae are its lakes Some lie in the deep recesses of hills that dip down so steeply you cannot reach their shores; while the mountains around thes its flight across their silent waters Other lakes are seen in broad, barren plains; and yet, a few years after, the traveller finds them not--they have dried up and disappeared Some are fresh, aters like crystal--others brackish and muddy--while many of them are more salt than the ocean itself

In this Desert there are springs--springs of soda and sulphur, and salt waters; and others so hot that they boil up as in a great caldron, and you could not dip your finger into the the sides of theinto the plains--soht fancy mountains had been scooped out to form the straight up froht--and steep as a wall; and through the reat clefts cut by the rivers, as though they had been tunnelled and their tops had fallen in They are called ”canons” All these singular forion of the Great American Desert

It has its denizens There are oases in it; soe, and settled by civilisedmany towns, and 100,000 inhabitants These are of the Spanish and mixed Indian races Another oasis is the country around the Great Salt and Utah Lakes Here is also a settlelishh they dwell hundreds of e and powerful nation of thereat oases, there are thousands of others, of all sizes--from fifty miles in breadth, to the little spot of a _few_ acres, for Many of these are without inhabitants In others, again, dwell tribes of Indians-- so horses and cattle; while others are found in s rass, reptiles, and insects

In addition to the two great settlements we have mentioned, and the Indians, there is another class of ion

These are whitethe beaver, and hunting the buffalo and other animals Their life is one continued scene of peril, both from the wild animals which they encounter in their lonely excursions, and the hostile Indians hom they come in contact These men procure the furs of the beaver, the otter, the musk-rat, the marten, the ermine, the lynx, the fox, and the skins of many other animals This is their business, and by this they live There are forts, or trading posts--established by adventurousdistances froe their furs for food, clothing, and for the necessary i