W. W. Newcomb Bequest 7-15-46 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW VOL. 16 JANUARY, 1920 No. 1 A Journey to the Salton Sea PHILII A. Munz, Ph.D. Professor of Botany, Pomona College, California. If you will turn your atlas to a map of southern California, you will see in the extreme southern and eastern corner of Los Angeles County the town of Claremont. Here is situated Pomona College, and it was from here in March 1919, that several members of the Botany Department of the College started early on a Tuesday morning for a spring vacation on the Colorado Desert. With plant presses on the front and side of the machine, with the other side built up to carry food and camping equipment, and with a huge roll of bedding under one of the plant presses, our little Ford, that trusty desert car, took on at once that air of indifference to appearances, which so many cars of the southwest have, especially those that are accustomed to travel on the desert, The desert with its dry scorching winds and its intense beating light, soon takes away all elegance from a machine subjected to its fierce sun. We left Claremont early in the morning and drove east through thirty miles of orange groves and grain fields to San Bernardino for breakfast. From there the road we followed was south-east to Redlands, then we began the climb through the chaparral with its beautiful wild lilac, the flower clusters of which look for all the world like those of the lilac, but which belongs to the same genus as does the New Jersey tea, Ceanothus. We found also a very beautiful lousewort much resembling the Pedicularis canadensis of Eastern woods and fittingly called P. densiflorus. The road soon. left the chaparral and led us to the apricot and apple orchards of Beaumont and Banning in Riverside county; then over the San Gorgonio Pass which separates the desert from the fertile valleys of the Pacific slope. This pass has to the north of it, San Bernardino Mountain (11,600 feet), and to the south, San Jacinto Peak (10,987 feet); both peaks white with snow and visible from the desert below. Desert mountains with a great cone of sand blown against them. Near Whitewater A typical small sand dune about the base of a desert shrub. Near Whitewater These two peaks give the names to their respective mountain ranges which run almost parallel in a general north-west and southeast direction, and shut in a vast desert valley, the Coachella, a place dry and hot, yet with water near enough the surface for irrigating purposes. The annual rainfall for points in this valley as well as in the Salton Sink and Imperial Valley to the southeast of it, is given as averaging about two and one-half inches. One does not need to own many umbrellas unless to ward off the rays of the sun. After one crosses San Gorgonio Pass, he very soon goes into an entirely different life zone. The grassy slopes and blue larkspur, chia, and Phacelias give way to the joint-firs (Ephedra), creosote bush (Covillea), and yuccas of the desert. A ride of a few miles takes one to Whitewater, a region of blown sands which are heaped up by the wind as small dunes about the base of desert shrubs or are thrown in great masses against the gaunt, bare, rocky base of the mountains. Far above, these same mountains show stretches of bright green, darker slopes covered with conifers, and the white of snow-covered peaks. Cruel as the desert sometimes appears, unkind and terrifying as it may be, it is at this season so mildly pleasant, so warm and soothing, so varied in hue with the pinks and blues and grays, that it is altogether an enticing place, -until the wind blows. A journey of a few miles from Whitewater brings one to Palm Springs, a veritable oasis and most surprising place. Originally a little Indian settlement, it has, because of its mild dry air and unusual surroundings, become a favorite stopping place for the Eastern tourist who may be so fortunate as to be able to part with about $15 per day. From Palm Springs one can go to a number of canyons, in the lower parts of which grow native palms, the fan palms of California, which appear at the edge of the Colorado desert in a clay stratum that apparently catches the water coming down from the strata which lie above. These palms are very interesting and a trip to Palm Canyon is worth anyone's time. Here we collected a number of interesting things in the way way of plants: a composite which looked like a mallow, a wild. tobacco, and some peculiar little ferns. Cactus is so abundant that in our first night's camping place, near the mouth of the canyon, we had to use the road as the only place free from the spines and had to bestir ourselves early the next morning to make room for the first travellers. Our stay here however was a delightful one; and the night was made melodious with the songs of the tree toads in the little stream near by. Palm Canyon is also known for its hermit, a man who has lived the godly life (and sold postcards to the tourist) for a number of years. Rumor has it now that he is giving up his asceticism and returning to the Great White Way to make up for the years he has missed on the desert. Wednesday morning we left peaceful Palm Canyon and started over the desert again through regions of mesquite dunes where the mesquite hung heavy with mistletoe, which was in full bloom and made sweet the air for long distances. Then we would traverse long dry stretches almost without vegetation, but with that wonderful blue haze always hovering about the horizon. The monotony was enlivened by the occasional passing of a raven or of some other bird. Then too, when the day grew warm, one could always find a lizard; do let me say something about lizards. For real genuine sport, I know of nothing more exciting than to rush madly over the desert from one clump of bushes so another in pursuit of a lizard which consistently refuses to stand still long enough to be made a zoological specimen with the aid of a twenty-two rifle, and which finally ends the chase by disappearing into a convenient burrow. The lizards about Palm Springs are of many kinds; one of the most striking is the gridiron-tailed lizard (Callisauis ventralis) a very long legged and swift fellow that holds aloft his tail with its transverse black bars on the under side, and scampers over the desert at the rate of at least one mile per minute. Then there is a vegetarian, the desert iguana, whose large chunky body reminds one of a prehistoric form, but whose speed is assured by its large feet. This lizard bears the eur honious name of Dipsosauris dorsalis. It is of a light color with reddish brown transverse bars on the body and long tail. Another striking one is the ocellated sand lazard (Uma notata) a swift runner with fringe on his feet and with beautifully marked body. The chuckawalla (Saurcmalus ater is the largest one of all; I did not get to see it however, but there were other smaller ones like the whip-tailed lizard (Cnemidophorus tigris tigris), and brown-shouldered lizard (Uta stansburiana elegans). These with the rattlesnake that one always looks for and rarely finds, add largely to the interest in the desert. |