To the west rose the Panamint Range, sparsely sprinkled with gray sagebrush; here the earths and sands were yellow, ochre, and rich, deep red, the hollows and canyons picked out with intense blue shadows.

It seemed strange that such barrenness could exhibit this radiance of color, but nothing could have been more beautiful than the deep red of the higher bluffs and ridges, seamed with purple shadows, standing sharply out against the pale-blue whiteness of the horizon.
By nine o'clock the sun stood high in the sky.

The heat was intense; the atmosphere was thick and heavy with it.

McTeague gasped for breath and wiped the beads of perspiration from his forehead, his cheeks, and his neck.

Every inch and pore of his skin was tingling and pricking under the merciless lash of the sun's rays.
"If it gets much hotter," he muttered, with a long breath, "if it gets much hotter, I--I don' know--" He wagged his head and wiped the sweat from his eyelids, where it was running like tears.
The sun rose higher; hour by hour, as the dentist tramped steadily on, the heat increased.