The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-04-09

walled by the mountains. doomed with brazen sky,
sI3,re snreads Ike the d ocean to the lifting eye
An aged, weary long forgotten land
No cooling mist quenches the endless thirst
That rules supreme the bonndleFs stretches grand;
Over its broad expanse no storm clouds burst
With hurting feet. T. sa land accursed.
It is as though nature had gathered
all of the curses-heat, thirst, alkah,
barrenness, death-alI in one mass of
hatred, and hurled it, terrible anathema
of eternal desola6on, upon the earth.
She has made it Golgotha-a place of
skulls. After giving to the other lands
her blessings, the waving of green trees,
the cooling flash of water, soft breezes,
gentle sunshine, she comes here-like a
madman, when the fit is on him, going t
away by himself to foam at the mouth, |
| to rage, to gnash his teeth-she comes
here with fire, with tempest, with the |
dread simeon, and lashes the elements
into fury. She hr1rls the blazing heat
like a fire-bolt, icks up the last trace of
moisture with tongue of flame, sears
the greaning mountains with burning
winds, rides upon the relentless sand
storm-ruin bestriding red-mouthed dew
astation for q charger.
| Or, it is as though God had repented
4 Him of his anger, when he said, tsCursed
be the earth for thy sake !'-as though
i He repented Him, and withheld His
curse and yet, that His word might not
be broken, gathered up the bitterness of
the curse, distilled it, concentrated it,
grasped the very essence of it in His
hand, and, raising it aloft, hurled it
one awful bolt of consuming wrath
downward, and it hit the northwestern
corner of San Bernardino county. Men
call the spot where it struck, "Death
Valley"
One day an old acquaintance came to
| my office-a rowing, good-natured fellow,
with strong appreciation of the advan-
tages of money, but chronic dislike to
its acquisition by hard labor. The re-
, , suit had been a life frittered away in
wild goose chases after sunken treasures,
. lost mines, and other attractive, yet sad
: ly delusive, dreams of suddenly-acquired
: wealth. This time he was just back,
! with his partner, from search along the
, borders of Death Valley for the famous
; g sGun-sight lode'' The story of the
mine is briefly thus: Two of the sur
vivors of the emigrant party which was
lost in Death Valley in 1849, scaling the
mountain to escape, found, by their re-
!, port, silver mine of surprising rich
; ness. One of the men, as the story
: goes, picked out piece of the virgin
. metal, and hammered it into a. sight for
: : his gun, to replace one which he had
! lost. I believe both men died without
! having had the courage to go back,
= through the scene of their terrible suf-
fering, in search of the spot However
. this may be, the mine was lost. 1t is
= known all over the border to-day, as
- :" Gun-sight lode" At various times
parties have searched for it, but always
;. unsuccessfully.
~ "We did not find the mine," said my
3 friend; 'sbut one day, when toiline
| IN, he aIo of
.e valley. we came upon the dried, skinny
a remains of man, perished evidently al
,e alone. A note book, partly written, was
"a caught under the body in such a manner
that it had not been blown away. The
r writing seemed to refer, in places, to {
:. possibly the Gun-sight lode; bu
ia we could not fully understand it, and
ar as we were also short of provisions, w
w did not search long. Besides from wha
is little we could decipher, the man seemed
a. to have been crazy; so we paid less at
tention to it. We brought the note-bool
= with us, however, thinking you NIGH
=. ~ like to see it; and as we are tired of thi
-. ~ region, and are going to try our luck i
E Colorado, it viii be of no use to us.
no The man left the book with me. It
ai small, leather-bound memorandum
30 book, with tuck, such as one carrie
in breast pocket; much dried by tn
va sun, and the writing (writte
ep with penciD often entirely effaced
is The following is all that I hay
ol- been able to decipher. I give it withou
Nh any attempt to connect the narrative, c
,at to fill the breaks. Indeed, the write
seems to have observed little regularit
"a in his record, if record it can be called
in s'Blood on my hand! A BLUR of Grin
he son before my eyes The skies are braze
in above me- The sun is sick with gor'
lr d oh Of
ed shrek and howl; and this one word onl
he do they wall in my ears-this dreadf1
vas word, Murdery I stop my ears wit
en- my hands; I cry aloud to drown the
;oo wailing voice. I cannot drown it. / ca,
zen not keep it out. It pierces me-pierc
a me through and through.
me " What is it2 I am bewildered. WI
am flying as one who seeks the ends
nv the earth9 Yesterday the earth had
ON horror for me. The sun was not veilt
ks in blood. The winds were only winds
NV not demon voices. Oh now recollet
ass God pity me Pity? forgot; He c.
only curse me. Annihilate me. o Got
-, Blot me from the universe! That won
-, "a, be pity.
lyo g It all comes back to me now. It
ne, scared In my brain; the long search
- mountains; - and then behind that b
IL slie that overlooks the Valley of Deatl
tne the vein of the white shining silver
~ wealth for king. Then it swept oy
:ll, sln, me-my years of poverty, of toll
zen Asn cold sneer of the rich, as they saw I
oiae Ae penury; and here was wealth. I shou
70 oi have it all-an. Not even my partr
tT Iaa should share the treasure. was ms
1yo1 He stopped to pick up the precious met
~ ~ and struck him-him, the friend Of j
oye tolls, the one who had never failed a
AoW him. who had shared his food with d