this smudge of desert soil around the city comes in varying hues ; in the misty light of certain winter mornings it shows a uniform pale tan , at other times the color reveals golden tints , or is banded by old ivory or pale bluish gray , but more often than not , its pink , a salmon-colored ribbon slicing neatly across the confederate gray of the catalina forerange and curving south across the bluer rincons , leaping across the pass to benson where the apaches launched in their attacks upon the old presidio , smearing the santa ritas , and obscuring the sharp black volcanic peaks of the tucson mountains which crouch underneath the layer of dust like black cats that have rolled in the dirt to shed their fleas .