But, as it is, one can look forward to morning, and remember the evening.
Then, there are the not infrequent but seldom very destructive earthquakes; the occasional cloud-bursts and tornadoes, sudden and violent as a gunpowder-explosion; and, finally, the astounding contrast between the fertile regions and the desert.

There are places where you can stand with one foot planted in everlasting sterility and the other in immortal verdure.

In the midst of an arid and hopeless waste, you come suddenly upon the brink of a narrow ravine, sharply defined as if cut out with an axe, and packed to the brim with enchanting and voluptuous fertility.

Or you will come upon mountains which sweep upward out of burning death into sumptuous life.

When the monotony of life meets the monotony of death, Southern California becomes a land of contrasts; and the contrasts themselves become monotonous.
General Trednoke's ranch was very near the borders of these two mighty forces.