Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-12-11
Poor Tom Cover His Horrible Fate
While Searching for the famous

Poor Tom Cover! Ten months he car
ried in his pocket piece of black quartz
with nugget of free gold adhering-
said to be an authentic specimen from the
lost ledge of the Colorado Desert and
then he went away, for the fifth time, to
search out the delusive mine, and never
came back TO tell the tale.
He left Riverside on Tuesday, the
| 10th of September last. He separated
from his companion and wagon on the
Monday following, and has not been
seen since. Several searching parties
have been dispatched to the region of
his disappearance, but have succeeded
only in tracing his footsteps in the des-
ert sands few miles from were he left
the wagon. The points of water supply
within any accessible distance have all
been visited without showing traces of
| his presence. The last hope of his
survival is given over, and the utmost
consolation to be sought by his family
and friends is to recover his remains.
1.-The wandered in the ''bad-landn hills,
at his right, this last melancholy salts
faction may yet be granted them. If he
kept out upon the open desert, until he
sank down to die, his body is perhaps
covered by the drifting sands, and may
never be seen again.
| A reward of one thousand dollars
which has been offered for the recovery
OF the remains will doubtless stimulate
| further search. People are generally
very loath to engage in the undertake
| ing, however, as it involves great risks.
/ IN hn mi
share the fate of the man whose body
they are attempting to find. The coun-
try is one of
UNDERSTANDABLE WILDNEsS.
On the one hand is an open desert
and on the other range of broken hills,
known as the .tBad-lands," intersected
by an unexplored labyrinth of canyons
and rayines. The formation of these
hills is barren, chalky clay, and de-
scribed by one traveller rs having the
contour of pillows on an angry sea.
Looking across the country from the
north, it seems to be nearly level, but
us one approaches he finds a series OF
steppes with precipitous descents be-
tween. Entering one of those canyons
which furnish the only access to the
hills. a man may follow its course with
infinite toll for day or more and final
ly emerge at the starting point. At any
step he may come upon blind chasm
from ten to hundred feet in depth,
where slip of the foot would hurl him
into eternity. Even should he escape
immediate death by such an accident
there would remain the more horrible
alternative of being disabled and lying
there to perish far from human aid.
The point where the last traces 81
Cover were found is ten miles distant
from the nearest water supply in one
direction and thirty miles in another
| The Oakland hills are all but inaccessi
BILE TO wagons, and there is not within
their limits spear of grass or bit Of
heritage of any kind unpon which ami
mails could find subsistence. The diff
Guilty of carrying food, supplies ant
water through such country to admit
of prolonged search is manifest.
The open desert which has to b,
crossed in reaching the bad-lands, Is alst
full of perils. In the summer the hea
and evaporation are so great that {
| staunch wagon is in condition to fal
to pieces in ten days, parting at every
joint. In the same time animals be
come utterly tagged out, and fall ava,
to skeletons. The effect upon men ap
prosches the horrors of the Inpuisition
The very eyeballs become dry, and will
the impalpable alkaline dust which
covers them, burn, and that as though
scared with q hot iron.
DEATH VALLEY.
DR.. J. 2. Widney thus writes Of til