Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1869-11-19
M A RK Tw AIN
ON THE
SALT LAKE OF CALIFOROIA


traordinary curiosities, but being
situated in a very out-of- the-way
oorner of the country, and away up
among the eternal SHOWS of the Sier
ras. is little known and very seldom
visited. A mining excitement car
ried me there once. and l spent sew
eral months in Is WITTY. It lies
in lifeless, ,treeess hideous desert.
5000 feet above the level of the sea,
and is guarded by mountains 1000
feet higher, whose SUBMITS are hid
den always in The clouds. This sol
emn, silent, sal rs sea-this lonely
tenant of the lon..e-t spot on earth
is little graved VIII the pic
turesque. 1t is al UDpretending
expanse Of grey .eh vac. souut 100
miles in circumle eace. " n tWo is
lands in its cen,er, mere upiIeavals
of rent, and scorched and blistered
lava, showed over with grey banks
and drifts of punice and ashes, the
winding sheet of the dead volcano,
whose vast crater the lake has seiz-
ed upon and occupied.
The lake is 200 feet deep, and it's
sluggish waters are so strong with
alkali that if you only dip the most
hopelessly soiled garment into them
ouce or twice and wiring it out, it
will be found as clean as if it had
been through your ablest washer
woman's hands. While we camped
there our laundry work was easy
We tied the weeks washing astern
Of of our boat and sailed a quarter
Of a mile, and the job was complete
all to the wringing out. If we
threw the water on our heads and
gave them rub or so. the lather
would pile up three inches high
This water is not good for bruised
places and abrasions of the skin.-
We had valuable dog. He had
raw places on him. He had more
raw places than sound ones. He
was the rawest dog I almost ever
knew. He jumped overheard one
day to get away ON the flies. But
it was bad judgement. In his condi-
ton it would have been just as com
Portable to jump into the fire. The
alkali water nipped him in all the
raw places simultaneously, and be
struck out for the shore with con-
siderable interest. He yelped, and
barked, and howled as he went
and by the time he got to the shore
there was no bark to him-for he
had barked the bark all out of his
insides, and the alkali had cleaned
the bark all off his outside, and be
probably wished that he had never
embarked in any such enterprise.
He ran round and round in a circle,
and paved tue earth and clawed the
air, and threw double summersets,
sometimes backward and sometimes
backward and sometimes forward
in the most frantic and extraordin-
ary manner. He was not demon
strative dog, as general thing, but
rather of grave and serious turn
of mind, and I never saw him take
so much interest in al ything before
He finally struck out over the noun
tains, at gait which we estimated
at about $50 miles an hour, and he
is going yet. This was about five
years ago. We look for what is lef
of him along here every day.
A white man cannot drink th'
water of Mono Lake, for it is near
ly lye. It is said that the indians
in the vicinity drink it sometimes
though. 1t is not improbable, 70
they are among the purest liars
ever saw. There will be no addi
tional charge for this joke, excep
to parties requiring an explanation
of it. This joke has received Lig1
commentator from some of tn
ablest minds Of the age. Horac
Greely remarked to make a jok
like that. he, would not desire to liv
any longer.
There are no fish in Mono LAX
no frogs, no snakes, no pollywog
nothing in fact, that goes to max
life desirable. Millions of will
ducks and seagulls swim about tn
surface, but no living thing exist
under the surface, except whit
! feathery sort of a worm, one half a
inch long, which looks like bit c
white thread frayed out at the side'
If you dip up gallon of water 20
will get about $4,000 of these
They give to the water sort ST
! grayish white appearance. The