ns of their beds are
either whitened with deposits of borax and soda, or have been
transformed into barren expanses of hardened yellow clay.

The long, gentle slopes about the sinks, which have been built up
by the waste rock from the mountains, as a result of the occasional
cloudbursts are dotted with sage-brush, greasewood, or other low
plants, and furnish a home for numerous animals.

Back of the gravel slopes rise the mountains, browned under the
fierce rays of the summer sun. In some of their deeper canons little
springs and streams are found, but the water usually dries up before
leaving the protecting shadows of the cliffs. Toward the mountain
tops the desert juniper appears; and if the peaks rise high enough
to get more of the moisture of the cooler air, they support groves
of the pinon and possibly yellow pine.

The valleys are all much alike. In summer the days are unbearably
hot, while in winter the air is cool and invigorating. The skies
are overcast for only a few days in the year, but in the autumn
and spring fierce winds, laden with dust and sand, sweep across
the valleys and through the mountain passes.

Strange rock forms, of many contrasting colors, worn out by wind
and water, mark the desert mountains. The granite wears a brown,
sunburned coat, while the masses of black lava show here and there
patches of pink, yellow, and red. The air is often so wondrously
clear that distant mountains seem much nearer than they really
are. During the hot summer days the mirage forms apparent lakes and
shady groves, illusions which have lured many a thirsty traveller
to his death.

Death Valley is the lowest and hottest of the desert basins. Its
surface, over four hundred feet below the level of the sea, is
the lowest dry land in the United States. The valley is long and
narrow and enclosed by mountains. Those upon the east are known
as the Funeral Mountains, while upon the west the peaks of the
Panamint Range rise to a height of about ten thousand feet.

If the rainfall were greater, Death Valley would be occupied by a
salt or alkaline lake, but in this dry region lakes cannot exist,
and the bottom of the sink, sometimes marshy after exceptional
winter rains, is in many places almost snowy white from deposits
of salt, soda, or borax.

Death Valley, then, differs from scores of other valleys in the
Great Basin by being a little lower, a little hotter, and a little
more arid. Strange as it may seem, old pros