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.
Most of the cactus trees were gorgeous with flowers, ranging from a deep rich crimson through rose and pink to a creamy white.
The green of the plants and the delicate colors of the flowers were wonderfully soothing to the two who had come from the bare and burning desert.