The evaporation from the heat was so great that after a mouthful
or two of water they were invariably as thirsty as ever, inside of five
minutes.
They passed from this desert into a wide, dry valley between bare
mountains, and entered a great cactus forest, one of the most wonderful
things that either of them had ever seen. The ground was almost level,
but it was hard and baked. Apparently no more rain fell here than in the
genuine desert of shifting sand, and there was not a drop of surface
water. Ned, when he first saw the mass of green, took it for a forest of
trees, such as one sees in the North, but so great was his interest that
he was not disappointed, when he saw that it was the giant cactus.
The strange forest extended many miles. The stems of the cactus rose to
a height of sixty feet or more, with a diameter often reaching two feet.
Sometimes the stems had no branches, but, in case they did, the branches
grew out at right angles from the main stem, and then curving abruptly
upward continued their growth parallel to the parent stock.
The stems of these huge plants were divided into eighteen or twenty
ribs, within which at intervals of an inch or so were buds, with
cushions, yellow and thick, from which grew six or seven large, and many
smaller spines.
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