The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-12-02

ONNh " oS anu SOhlClitIlGS tOI Us, IN the
most frantic and extraordinary manner
He was not a demonstrative dog, as
general thing, but rather Of grave and
serious turn of mind, and | never saw
Linn take SO much interest in anything be-
fore. Tie finally struck out over the noun
tains, at about 250 mies an hour, and ne
is going yet. This was about five years
ago We look for what IL left of him
along here every day.
A white man cannot drink the wafer
Of Mono Lake, for it is nearly pure I've
1t is said that the Indians in the vicinity
drink it sometimes, though. II is not i'm
probable, for they are among the purest
liars | ever saw There will be no ad>
ditional charge for this joke, except to
parties requiring an explanation of il -
This joke has received high commenda
tion from some Of the ablest minds of The
age. Horace Greeley remark ed to friend
of mine that if he were ever TO make a
joke like that, he would not desire to live
any longer.
There are no fish in Mono Lake-no
frogs, no snakes, no pollywogs-n nothing,
in fact, that goes to make life desirable.
Millions of wild ducks and sea gull swim
about the surface, but no living thing ex-
lists under the surface except a white.
feathery sort of worm, one half inch long.
which looks like bit of white thread
trayed out at the sides. If you dip up a
gallon of water you will get about fifteen
thousand of these. They give to the wa
Ter sort of grayish white appearance.
Then there is fly which looks something
like our house fly. These settle on the
beach 10 eat the worms that wash ashore
any time you can see there belt of flies
an inch deep and SIX feet wide, and this
belt extends clear around the lake-a belt
of flies one Lundred miles long If you
throw stone among them, they swarm
up SO thick that they look dense, Ike
cloud. You can hold them under wafer
as long as you please-they don't mind
it-they are only proud of It. When you
let them 60, they popup to the surface as
dry as patent office report, and walk off
as unconcernedly AS if they had been ed
ucated especially with a view to affording
instructive entertainment in that partieu-
lar way. Providence leaves nothing to 90
bv chance. All things have their uses
and their part and proper place in ma
ture's economy. The ducks and guIls eat
the tlies-the fliet eat the worms-the In
dams eat the fies-the wild cats eat the
Indians-Ihe white folks eat the wild
cats when The crops fail-and thus all
things are lovely.
Mono Lake is $50 miles in straight
line from th e ocean and between it and
the ocean are one or two ranges of noun
tains-yet thousands of sea gulls 60 every
season TO lay their eggs and rear their
young. One would as soon expect 10 find
sea-gulls in Tennessee. And in this con
nectIon let us observe another instance of
Natures wisdom. The islands in the
lake being merely huge masses of lava,
coated over with ashes and pumice stone,
and utterly innocent of vegetation or any
thing that would burn and sea gulls eggs
being entirely useless to any body unless
they are cooked, nature has provided an
unfailing spring of boiling water on the
largest island and you can put your eggs
IN there, and in four minutes you can boil
them as hard as any statement | have
made during the past fifteen years With
III ten feet Of the boiling spring is spring
of pure, cold water, sweet and wholesome
So, in that island you get your board aud
washing free of charge, and if nature had
gone further, and furnished nice Ameri
can hotel clerk, who was crnsty and diso-
bliging, and didn't know anything about
the timetables, or the railroad routs-or
anything-and was proud of it would
not wish for more desirable boarding
house.
Half a dozen little mountain brooks
flow into Mono lake, but not stream Of
any kind flows out of it. 1t neither rises
nor falls, apparently. and what it does
with its surplus water is dark and bloody
mystery. All the rivers of Nevada sink
into the earth mysteriously after they have
run 100 miles or so-none of them flow
to the sea, as is the fashion of rivers in
all other lands
There are only two seasons in the region
round about Mono Lakeland these are
beginning of the next More than once |
have seen a perfectly blistering morning
open up with the thermometer at ninety
degrees at eight o'clock, and seen the snow
fall fourteen inches deep and that same
identical thermometer go down to forty
four degrees under shelter before six
O'Clock at night. Under favorable ciry
cumstances it SHOWS at least once in ever
single month in the year, in the little town
OF M"no So uncertain is The climate in
SIMMER that a lady who goes out visiting
cannot hope TO be prepared for all emer-
gencies unless she takes her fan under one
arm and her snow-shoes under the other
When they have Fourth of July process
sion II generally SHOWS on them, and they
do say that, as "a general thing, when a
man calls for brandy toddy there, the
barkeeper chops it off with a hatchet and
wraps it up in a paper, like maple sugar