The desert
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About This Book
In the early summer of 1898, John C. Van Dyke, an asthmatic forty-two-year-old art historian and critic, rode an Indian pony out of the Hemet Valley, and headed southeast into the Colorado desert. With his dog, his guns, and few supplies, this sickly aesthete wandered, mostly alone, for nearly three years across the deserts of California, Arizona and Mexico. He crossed the Salton Sea Basin, forded the Colorado below Yuma on a raft he built himself, followed the railroad line to Tucson, then turned west again toward Sonora. His exact route is not known; he did not always know where he was himse...
Chapters (261)
- THE DESERT
- PREFACE-DEDICATION To A. M. C.
- CONTENTS
- CHAPTER I THE APPROACH
- Footnotes
- CHAPTER II THE MAKE OF THE DESERT
- Footnotes
- CHAPTER III THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL
- CHAPTER IV THE SILENT RIVER
- Footnotes
- CHAPTER V LIGHT, AIR, AND COLOR
- CHAPTER VI DESERT SKY AND CLOUDS
- CHAPTER VII ILLUSIONS
- Footnotes
- CHAPTER VIII CACTUS AND GREASE WOOD
- Footnotes
- CHAPTER IX DESERT ANIMALS
- CHAPTER X WINGED LIFE
- CHAPTER XI MESAS AND FOOT-HILLS
- Footnotes
- CHAPTER XII MOUNTAIN-BARRIERS
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