Water By Edward Abbey Chapter Summary

Water: By Edward Abbey

This article which is a chapter from a book is about how water impacts deserts. It starts off by Edward Abbey talking with a tourist from Cleveland, Ohio, who thinks that the desert would be a better place if it had more water. The author counters with an argument that the desert is fine the way it is, and trying to make it just like Cleveland would destroy the special qualities of the area. He says that if we had more water people would live here but where will they when they want to see something else bedsides people. The two individuals were in agreement that one would like to live here and the other would not like to live Cleveland.

Only two creeks flow from springs in the Arches area, and both are not potable. Salt

In the morning it began with clear and dazzling bright, the sky very blue north of Book Cliffs, on the east side by Grand Mesa and the La Sal mountains. Lightening streaks like gunshots through the clouds with a smell of ozone. Between the rain and the mountains their ia rainbow segment appears. The rain comes down not gently nor slowly but rather with no quality of mercy but like heavy water in buckets, raindrops like pellets. For about five minutes thunder and lightning continues then it goes quickly and only showers happen then to sprinkling then to nothing. Another rainbow appears. At night black cloud surround the new moon and in another hour Venus will be there as well, which is the planet of love to glow brighter on the western sky. After a storm flash floods occur, bursting out the hills and canyons within an hour after the storm has stopped. The flash flood of the desert poorly resembles water, but it looks like a puddle in the distance. I believe that this information the author gave was goo because many people do not know about the weather in the desert. Most people think that in the desert weather is only warm and hot and that no rain occurs. I knew that rain happens in the desert but I would never image the types of weather Edward Abbey

I learned a lot by reading this chapter on his book and would to read the whole completely but I did not really saw the point of his story. It seems interesting if a person is going on a similar trip as the author did and his experience can be very helpful. One thing I did not know and I thought was interesting was about quicksand even thought the author could not make an experience with his friend he did answer many question I had as I was reading such as what is quicksand. Other then that I did not understand his point although I like the fact that the author was somewhat comic and that is the way it was exciting to keep on reading and not fall asleep. Overall, in my opinion this article or this chapter of the book was interesting but not something I would have read on my own. Although, I will read the entire book to try to understand the author’s message and try to learn something new, I thinking that others should do the