Here you have no rain when all the earth cries for it, or quick downpours called cloud-bursts for violence. A land of lost rivers with little in it to love; yet a land that once visited must be comeback to inevitably.

The enduring appeal of the desert is strikingly apparent in this beautiful, poetic study that has become a classic volume on the American Southwest. First published in 1903, it is the work of Mary Austin (1868-1934), a prolific novelist, poet, critic and playwright who was also an ardent early feminist and defender of Indians and Spanish-Americans. She is best known today for this enchanting paean to the vast, arid, yet remarkably beautifullands that lie east of the Sierra Nevadas, stretching south from Yosemite through Death Valley to the Mojave Desert.

Comprised of 14 sketches, the book describes plants, animals,mountains, birds, skies, Indians, prospectors, towns and other features of the desert in serene, beautifully modulated prose that perfectly conveys the timeless cycles of life and death in a harsh land. Any reader of this book will never again think of the desertas a lifeless, barren environment, but rather as a place of rare,austere beauty, rich in plant and animal life, that weaves a lasting spell over its human inhabitants.

Preface

The Land of Little Rain

Water Trails of the Ceriso

The Scavengers

The Pocket Hunter

Shoshone Land

Jimville--A Bret Harte Town

My Neighbor"s Field

The Mesa Trail

The Basket Maker

The Streets of the Mountains

Water Borders

Other Water Borders

Nurslings of the Sky

The Little Town of the Grape Vines