| Show III III fit III HIM III III III III I 1 THE DEATH VALLEY J S spot in southern california la Is the hott tt a 1 1 1 S S in the known world f j III III HIM III I 1 no completa tp exploration of the famed death valley of southern call tornia fornia bits ever been wes made owing to the fact that few human being could endure the til matle condition conditions there thare the region ie Is doubtless doubt lew lees the most in salubrious an ani torrid OB on the face ol 01 the earth and the bonee bones of men and nd animal animals that trew strew lie its heated sands to efte fac thit th it those named tt it fully understood its nature but despite the that tave ve confronted explorer explorers an expedition la Is now in the valley nalley which gives phom lee 1 of revealing to the world many physical feature features hitherto matters ot of mere aaion and aiding greatly to the sum of knowledge pertaining to a vait vast territory go so inhospitable as to have inspired a popular dread only paralleled by that which surrounds the deadly upa tree of table and story last november the expedition re berred to start started etl on its mission and ir expected to conclude its it researches in may alay it consists of a dozen hinr botanists and biologists of california and several g from boston and chicago death valley lies in inyo county about 2150 miles from the nearer rail road mile miles from the lucean and coee beside the nevada california state line it Is a part of at the mojave and Col colorado arado deserts and Is to the quint essence of all that Is melar melancholy choly grin grim and withered in d desert sert tharas ter latice the valley proper li to about milea miles long and 50 60 wide alt about ore are maintain walls of bleached grau ite in some places the waua walls rise sheer several thousand feet the val vat ley Is 13 teamed seamed with deep and desolate whitened gulches guli hes annl there ore pre but few places where oae may croes crots from one elje side of it to mother sn other la in aatu the mercur ranges from to US in the shade ad ald when hen rocks are a shimmering walte and the alkali wastes aie ate scorching even the strongest cannot make the he jour ney safely the bot bottom torr of the valley ie Is made up of great areas of saline deposits beda beds of at bor bonx tx and salt which under a barong run sunshine shIne present a ghastly appearance with their gilli glistening telling whiteness there are dozena dozens of at cral crat ere of at extinct tinka noen in the valley and with their blackened ruing ruins and coating of dark cinders cin dere acres in area the general whiteness of the valley bottoms ilande out all tle me more lonely and ghastly baill hills that shift and grow and diminish with every desart whirl wind abound and great sink holes half halt a mile in diameter are found all over death valley us as dry ashow der with an alkaline sediment dry on an the bottom where it was deposited thousand thousands of u ago there Is no known hotter drier pot spot in africa or asia birds which abound in the sierras do not wing their way across this pot spot nature Is absolutely in death valley nowhere alae in all america la Is oration so high one ones thirst must be slaked every few hours even in the depth of winter and thirst soon becomes raging and in half halt a day may cause insanity many a hardy min win ing prospector han has gone insane with thirst in a few houra hourc when on the edge of death valley the tho desert from mojave to the searles borax works on the edge of at death valley Is frequently dotted with groves graves of teamsters loar an I 1 prospectors pros who have reeled and anti died on tho the hot sands hen iben they had bad run short of drinking wa ter sandstorm sandstorms are a serious thin thine on the colorado ani ant molave derti but nowhere do they approach the beadli ness of a sandstorm in death valley the simeona of the arabian desert are wel we known la in literature but the present explorer of c death valley say the timmons are mere babes by the de ide of a howling gale of hot sad said in N v X nc 1 ai AL 1 4 0 4 11 0 uda the only vegetation this the hot bot air rising fram the canons can on and bottoms of the val vat ley leys encounter encounters the cold atmosphere currents from the tho sierras and rok rk its le and tin the rushing of ibi cooler ar air into tho th valley instantly crabtr J a storm undreamed of wany other part of the world for hour hours at a time tho the sandstorm rages occasionally abr or a L day and a light nothing nag alive ran can brave the hurricane tho the man who will keep heep close ethin a tent with his heal beat rapped in a blanket 1 will stir unav viv but be will luffer stiffer with heat beat almost as severely is if it la in an oven awl f r days ther thereafter vatter with ith a pain palla from nostril nostrils and inflamed ey edw ad 4 veath dc atta valley gete gets ite its taw from its a ghastly aspeci if its at and its deadly effect elect u upon masy a vector or ignorant Ve respecter specter who bai bas ell to troea crone tt it tv summer and an rho baa has died of 0 there amol amog all the tale tales of grim hardships a dreadful suffering uffer log by emigrants emi granta V california before there were ra fired west of the none te to to P aul xul ul as that of the party who got ift i in death valley alloy in 1849 there we SOO emigrants emt Krants in a caravan at st sit I 1 ake city in august rr of that year at 11 ere going to the gold field fields in cai cal fornia A division of opinion arcq RS as to the safest and easiest tul flit across the trackless track leea plains and tip to the new now 11 dorado son SOC of the party struck out for ito tie and found the old santa ie trail which finally led them to boutt ern california the reet rest went plot ding in a carivan carwan across the wan test jt southern utai there was nothing to show them the way through the ire 1 lesa lesis roas roasting tins valleys past the bild alit then we westward oler th tha bowering sierras the caraan caravan waa was in the land at df thirst for tour four mouths the starving half crazed men and women wan wandered derid td hither and yon through the region of horror seeking gome some pai pats between tho the mountains to the pacific ocean ml all rages led them vainly miles away from the trail their wagons fell apart from dryness and horses fell dally daily un F ice of tie tl dilert der a vil withering therin heat the oen oxen tell fell and stalwart alart st men n sickened sick ned and died in the camps one day nine men became separated from the main party ant years ater later their whitened hones bones were found in an extinct 01 ol at canto cante crater where they had crawled in their delirium and weakness for fur days lays the gaunt ant weak men in the party went without food the day were too hot hat for them to be out in the sun and they confined their to the nighta nights for finding paths that might lead out of the roasting toma at last eighty two of the original party now mere skeleton skeletons and sc so weak that they scarcely f found oun d a passa passageway geay through the tu fu mountains mountain i and summoning all their little remaining strength man aged to get up and out of death val ley into the ool and well watered region of southern california beyond the sierras |
