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Show DEATH FEOM THIEST. Terrible Experiences in the Colorado Colo-rado Desert. An Arid Region Where Life In Any Form la Hard to Sustain Sand Storms Which Cut Down Telegraph Tele-graph Poles. The great Colorado desert, which forms a part of San Diego county, allured al-lured three prospectors to their death,' as was recently reported. These men, who were seeking gold, died within a few thousand yards of an abundant water supply, simply because they made a slight miscalculation as to what was needed to carry them safely over the hot, dry, treacherous desert plains, says a San Diego correspondent of the Xew York Tribune. One of their stampeded mules died at the edge of the water pool. The other mules were found alive. The bodies of the men were found not far apart, as they had fallen when overcome by the death weakness. This is only one of thousands of instances in-stances of the terrible possibilities of a death from thirst in the western deserts. des-erts. During the summer their average daily temperature is over one hundred and ten degrees. The air is absolutely dry, and a strong man cannot count on living unless he gets water at least living unless he gets water at least every six hours. Cloth-covered canteens can-teens containing several gallons of water are usual receptacles used in desert des-ert marching, and five quarts a day will keep a man feeling pretty comfortable. A great danger in desert marching is the. liability of finding water holes, where the night's encampment is to be made, dried up. Y'ears ago Gen. Canby marched a brigade or so across a forty-five-mile stretch of desert in Colorado. 1 he water holes along the route were dry, and for many hours the troops were without w ater. A number of the men died eu route, and many others were carried along in army wagons, at death's door, physically. The utmost exertions of the officers were needed to keep the men from lying down and dying. All the dogs of the command died on this awful trip, their bodies swelling to twice the natural size before be-fore death ensued. Upon reaching the Grand river, after an all-day march, the thirst-stricken troops were allowed to drink all the water they desired. The symptoms of approaching death from thirst are an overwhelming lassitude lassi-tude which rapidly increases. A kind of film forms over the eye and partially obscures the vision. The mouth, tongue and throat become parched, the tongue feeling like a corncob, as it grows dry and hard. Hallucinations flit through the brain until the weakness weak-ness becomes so great that unconsciousness unconscious-ness follows and death soon ensues, as the unwatered blood thickens and interferes with the functions of the heart. Men have, been known to go without water for forty-eight hours, but the conditions were different from those of the desert. A San Francisco Fran-cisco sailor, who was taken from a waterlogged ship, had been without water for fourteen, days, save such a scanty supply as he could lick from the spars in the form of accumulated dew. When found this man's throat was actually actu-ally closed up and before an entrance to his stomach was obtained by proper medical means the poor castaway died. When it comes to a question between the dangers of desert or sea the natives in these parts much prefer the sea as being safer than the desert. Winds on the desert can be as fatal in effect as the veriest hurricane on record. A long-continued long-continued sandstorm deals death all along its route. This sand is so oppressive oppres-sive to section hands of transcontinental transcontinent-al railroads that they wear goggles for the protection of their eyes. The sides of telegraph poles exposed to the prevailing desert winds are literally eaten out by the constant friction, and the station windows on the windy side are quickly turned into ground glass by these sand blasts. In crossing the desert des-ert a freight car containing supplementary supple-mentary water tanks is attached to the iocomotive. Stationary water tanks are an unknown quantity on the deserts, des-erts, except in rare instances. |