Show S HORRORS 0 VAILLY Where So Many hove tH U T In hi New York Swung Evening PMt tos 1405 The most thorough ex Ox exploration f the and gr w ome Death Deat valley in since W B Crawford Crawfords there in 11 began with t the he cool t day dayi of lut clos sa for 4 eaon when hot w r in t Death val ley in May The rh esp con conof of t 9 do oen n mineralogists tall ana biOlogIstS of f California anti ana eT r a train from and nd ChIra Tilt The of the Los Loe Angelu An gelu Sari lt l railroad from Salt it City to Los Lee Angeles Cal through the desert coun country country try adjacent to Death valley has roused interest in the mineral possibilities of this little known corner of ol the Union With a railroad by which ores borax and saline products may he be hauled cheaply chesy to smelters and L market markel there may fee be fortunes to be found even m in no so forbidding a bit of 01 the earths surface ap an this thin Thus fat far fatI the explorers have located under the I United States mineral laws the largest deposits of niter in North America several beds of naturally formed borax besides numerous of silver and copper ores The expedition has hu m carefully studied the remarkable topography raphy and geology of Death valley y To P cover the subject however many mouths months will be required aad an when cool weather returns next fall lal 1 the expedition will resume itt its work tot for 1 another season S Death valley taller lies lit ha Inyo county about niles miles from the nearest rail railroad railroad road mItes miles from the Pacific ocean and close beside the t state line It Is a part of the Mojave C Cand and Colorado deserts and is the quint quintessence essence of all ati that is melancholy grIn grim grimand 1 and withered in desert characteristics p The valley proper te IS about miles mile S long and wide While most of o Inyo county for thousands of square squar C miles Is a plateau averaging feet fee Ct t in altitude Death valley in from O Oto to feet below SOt sea level Mount Moun t Whitney to tile the east is over feet fee t high hiim and the descent from that to the tb C tC valley is 1 very precipitous All thou about t tare are mountain walls of bleached granite gras gran ite it In some places the walls rise slice sheer r several thousand feet The valley is I a ra seamed with deep canons and desolate e whitened gulches and there are but bu t few places pi ces where one may cross from a one oft side of it to another la itt summer summet when time the mercury ranges from to t 0 in the shade and when rocks are area ar ara e a shimmering white and ai the alkali alka ii wastes are scorching even the strong strongest est eat cannot make the journey safely The bottom of the valley is made up u p of great of saline deposits beds bed 5 of borax and salt which under a aI strong sunshine present a ghastly aj a I with their glistening white sees nese The are shale and an d schist left from the pe pa period nod but a most extensive volcanic eruption has so se scattered and i ed the various formations that widely different deposits are often found within a few feet of one another There are of craters crater ef of extinct vol volcanoes volcanoes canoes in the valley and with their blackened ruins and coating of dark cinders acre in ares the general whiteness of the valley stands out all the more lonely and ghastly Stud Sand hills that shift and grow and diminish with every desert whirlwind abound and great sink holes half a amile amile mile in diameter are found alt all over Death valley as dry as powder with an fl alkaline sediment dry on en the bottom where it was vaa deposited thousands of years ago Tl Tle e Indians Indiana of ot the Mojave desert call the valley Devils Hollow and none will ever go farther into it than the threshold il then only in winter A wealth of un us uncanny canny stories is 1 in the lore of the Mo Mojave MoJave jave tribe about bad Indians who have been condemned te to live through all eternity in Death valley There is no known hotter drier spot in Africa or Asia Birds which abound in the Sierras do not wing their thir way across this spot Nature is absolutely lifeless in Death valley While the waters of melting snows on the lofty mountains run tumultuously down the canyons on the western sides of the Sierras they never navet reach Death valley on the eastern side ride for they are sucked away in the vast sandy stretches long before they pass the feet of the moan moun mountains Nowhere else in all America is evaporation fco high Ones thirst must ba be slaked every few hours even In the depth of winter and thirst soon be becomes becomes comes raging and in half a day may cause insanity Many a hardy mining prospector has gone insane with thirst in a few hours when on the edge of Death valley The desert from Mojave to the borax works on the western edge of Death valley is fre dotted deed with Avith the graves of teamsters and prospectors who have reeled and tiled died on the hot sands when they had run short of drinking water The mirages of Death valley the ex cx explorers say are the most remarkable in the world Every day in any season one sees among the parched hills and scalded mountain sides aides pictures miles In area of foaming mountain streams sylvan shades al at alfalfa falfa fields and browsing cattle scenes reflected from the other sides and tops of the Sierras Occasionally scenes from the Pacific ocean cean may be reflected in the mirages and sailing ships and tossing waves may be seen amid the shimmering desolate sand hills and al i ikall kail kall canyons of Death valley The In Indians Indians call the mirages the Biff Spirits pictures Sometimes in the hottest weather the mirages will remain float floating floatIng ing wonderfully distinct in the valley for a day at a time but generally it lasts last only a few minutes Then the vanishes in a twinkling to tobe tobe be soon succeeded by another until as many as seven different mirages have been seen there in one day Sandstorms are a serious thing on the Colorado and deserts but n na where do they approach the deadliness of a sandstorm in Death valley The of the Arabian deserts are well known In literature but the pres present cut ent explorers of Death valley say the are mere babes by the side of ofa ofa a how howling Hag gate gale of hot sand m in this place Time The hot air rising from the can canyons youe and bottoms of the valleys en encounters counters the cold atmosphere currents from the Sierras and and the rushing of the cooler air into the valley instantly creates a storm undreamed of in any other ethos part of th the world Noth can ean brave the hurricane The Theman Theman man who will keep eke close within a tent with his head wrapped wrap in a blanket will survive bat he be will suffer with heat almost as severely as if IC in an oven aid aad for or days thereafter with a pain trout from smarting nostrils and In Inflamed Inflamed flamed eyes aid aad ears plainsmen plains plainsmen men w who ho know about all the hardships that mans anatomy can experience are a unit In saying that the desert sandstorm more particularly a Death valley sandstorm te Is the most trying physical ordeal The mountains which bulwark Death valley show the ten ter terrific rUle erosion of their flinty faces by b suc ef ions of these thea tempests Here and there arf ar starved plants like Mke stunted starved arved trees that have been beOn hair bitt during these torms fly a man in who has been a desert teamster or a mining S S prospector p has suffer suffered ad chronic inflammation pe mation of the yes eyes by reason of o having experienced e one of these whirlwinds of alkali a sand av The nearest water course to Death valley v J Is the tbd river tream s that trickles down in am an antoo enor enormous too bed from away up among the mountains in Nevada Centuries o u uhe othe the he t was wan a mighty roaring torrent t that eroded rocha rockgate d S S ate ao a te a river bed half a mile wM whis for over ver o eighty miles Th The t to ouches the extreme southwestern end of o f Death valley and la Iu the locality and venomous crawling things I may be occasionally seen darting carting tromp from j under u rocks In the same locality tiny rivulets r of at heavily charged borax wa water ter Issue from the base bast of oC ancient canoe c noss and form la hi pools of o f of the purest borax art aN cre created cr a tM here by the Intense evaporation aad a nd large fortune have been hait side made by hi Californians who ho haul the product I j across a eoe the desert detert to the railroad eta tion ies t In hi Death valley pU gt n Its name from Its t ghastly g aspect Its desolation and Its It deadly d effect affect upon many A oils s or 01 Ignorant mining prospector who i ha has Attempted to dross cross U It in sum mar mtr and who bOa died of thirst there Among ng all the tales talea of and a nd dreadful suffering by emigrants to California before there were railroads west of the Missouri river none is so pitiful as a that of the party who got lost l ost in Death valley in 1849 There were OO emigrants In a caravan at al Salt Lake City th Iii August of that year AH All were going to the gold fields of ol California A division of opinion arose ag as to the safest and easiest trail across the he t trackless plains and the Sierras to the new Eldorado Some of the party struck out ou for the southeast and found the old Santa Fe trail which finally led the i to southern California The rest went plodding in a caravan across the wastes of southern Utah There was nothing to show them time the way through the lifeless roasting val vt valleys leys l eys past the bald mountains and then ther westward over the towering Sierras The caravan was in the Land of ol Thirst For four months time starving halt half erased men and women wandered hither and yon yen through the region of ol horror seeking some pa pass s between the mountains to the Pacific ocean Mirages led them vainly vinly miles away awa from the trail Their wagons felt fell apart spar from frem dryness and fell dally daill under a withering heat The oxen fell felland felland and stalwart men sickened and died in the camps One day nine young men mci became separated from the main party and years later their whitened boon bones were found in an extinct volcanic era ura tar ter where they had crawled in their delirium and weakness For days tin the gaunt weak men in the party went wen without food The days were too went hot ho t for them thein to be out in the sun and they the I confined their efforts effort to the nights for to r finding paths that might lead out of the ti C roasting tomb At last of the origins original I party now mere skeletons and so weak wet i that they could scarcely a passage way through the Funeral Funera mountains and summoning all their thel little remaining strength managed to t tand get up and out of Death valley into the tim cool and well watered region of south southern southe era ern California beyond the Sierras One On Onor e OT or the party the Rev J W Uric drier weighed is S pounds when he be left Salt Sal it Lake City and when he reached Los Lo Angeles eighteen weeks later his Itis weight weigh was down to pounds Two Tw 0 of his Itis brothers and one of his inlaw tiled died during the awful journey |