The Penn's Grove record., 1885-11-07

The name Is fearfully suggestive, and
get few places III the world deserve
heir appellations so well as does the
death Valley Of California, nor Is it
easv 10 find any other locality in any
country whatever which gathers about
itself so much that inspires horror and
dread. A region where a mar can die
of thirst while he has water within his
reach. more than he can drink, may
well hear the most terrible title that
can be given &c; and this name-Death
Valley-given from the first known
event in its history, thirty-ive years
ago, will doubtless cling to the spot to
the end Of time.
Il is in the southeastern part of Inyo
county. California, and the point at
which the meridian OF 1l6 degrees 10
%ninntes west crosses So degrees 10 mill
ltes north is as nearly as possible IN It's
center of horrors. Probably only one
pther SPOT of which we have any knowl-
edge, the Guevo Upas, OF Vale or Pol.
son. in Java, exceeds the fatality OF
Death Valley. The valley itself is forty
miles by eight, running nearly north
and south, and every portion OF this IS
desert and barren in the extreme. as IS
in fact the entire surrounding country;
but a narrow central space along the
eastern side, about fifteen miles in
length. embodies the typical features or
highest intensity. Into this very few
persons have ever gone, that Is, VINO
returned to tell the tale, and what IS
here related pertains to the higher ana
comparatively modern parts toward the
borders of the valley.
The dangers are the result of atmos-
pheric conditions solely. Lack OF water
NAV be a fatal evil, but this can be
avoided; supplies Of water may be car
ried. or better still, it is now tolerably
well ascertained that water is available
bv sinking even shallow wells in much
the greater extent Of the upper portions
of the valley. But the water falls to
afford its usual life giving value from
two causes. The first Of these Is the
heat. OF course this is moderated GU
ring two or three of the winter months,
and for that space Of time a residence
on the borders of Death Valley is posi-
BILE without any exceeding great fisk.
But this soon passes away and the fur
mace is in blast. BY about April the
average (of day and night is from W to
% degrees; by May it is 80 to lUO de-
grees; and a little later it averages over
100 degrees, reaching often 120 to l25
degrees in the coolest place that can be
found. If this was with a damp atmos-
pbere it would stiie any human life
with great rapidity, but q certain
amount of Gryness enables 1t TO De
borne with more safety.
Here. however, comes in the second
of the two evils which have been indi-
cated-the intense dryIiess Of the atmos-
phere. This is so excessive as to be In
many instances fatal in spite OF every
precaution. The writer has never
tasted the full severity of this feature
in Death Valley itself, but his experi-
ence along its immediate borders rem
ders him ready to give full credence to
the statement that many cases OF q
have occurred s'when water was plenty,
but could not be drunk fast enough to
supply the dram caused by the deslcca-
tive power of the dry, hot air." In
fact in one instance he himself nearly
reached that condition, and a few hours
longer of the heat and dryneS5 would
have placed his own name among those
of its victims.
1t has been said that birds drop dead
in attempting to cross the valley. MI.
Hawkins, who visited 1t in 1882, says
that he ''picked up, at different times,
two little birds, a mile or so from water,
whose bodies were still warm, having
evidently just dropped dead" The
bodies Of men and their horses are liable
to be encountered at any time; they
have been found within a mile OF water,
and in n case with water still in their
canteens, and a supply of food as well,
showing that the climate was the cause
of death.
With these facts in view it is not I'm.
reasonable to say that the name OF
Death Valley is we'll bestowed. And II
this is the state of things on the eleva-
ted borders, ranging from 200 to 1000
feet and more above the sea, what must
be the heat and the dryness in the very
focus? For one of the additional Won
ders Of Death Valley is that It's central
region lies away below the level or the
sea. There is perhaps no other spot Oh
the globe which at so great a distance
FROM the ocean reaches such a depres.
sion-159 feet. The Dead Sea, with
the gorges Of the Jordan and the Ara
bah, of course greatly exceeds this, bu'
it is not widely separated from the east
ern parallel border Of the Medlterra
mean.