The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-10-06

reIs Burs,-Amost Peri,hins Before ihe
Mountains Were Reached.
Los ANGELES, Cal, September 81
There are now in this city three men who
have recently crossed and recrossed the
famous Death Valley of Southern Cali,
fornia, and who have succeeded IN solv.
ing mine of mystery which has baffied
the most daring and skillful prospectors
for many years. The Gunsight placers
were located in 10, but afterward lost,
and though repeated attempts have been
made to find them, most of the men en-
gagged in the effort have perished.
About six weeks ago when A. F. Jud-
son, a. D. Spring and Barney Garter an
no7nced that they were going after the
Gunsight trail, their friends tried to
disuade them. and chance acquaintance
laughingly bade them good-by forever.
No one ever expected to see them agane
and when they set out confidently on
their mission they were given up as dead
men might have been. So many such
expeditions had left this and other towns
only to meet death in its most horrible
form that this one was regarded as es-
peciaIy fool-hardy.
About week ago the three men re.
turned. They came in by rail, ragged,
emaciated and feeble, and one of them,
Carter, sick abed. But all were enthu.
siastic over their achievements, and each
had in his pockets nuggets to prove his
assertion that the Gunsight mine had
been found. The story OF their trip
would be incredible were they not here
as living witnesses to its truth, their
bodies bearing all too plainly the proofs
Of the suferings which they have under
gone.
Knowing that the discoverers of the
Gunsight mines crossed the Death Val
ley, these adventurers sought, ii posi-
bic, to make the same trail. Once
through the Mojsve desert, they soon
came to the dazzling white sandy plain
where no Life can exist. Almost at the
first step they were prostrated by the
fierce hest from above and below. Their
feet sweled so that they were compelled
to rip open their shoes, and the goggles
which they had prepared were but feeble
protection for their eyes.
The men had two wagons, each drawn
by two horses, and in these vehicles they
carried water in barrels and other sup
Plies. After an hour or two of the most
painful locomotion, the heat Incoming
more intolerable at every step, the party
paused few minutes for rest and re-
freshment. The poor beasts fairly
groaned in their agony, and the men
themselves did not dare look at each
other lest they would read in each others
eyes the despair which all knew was set
ting upon them. On every hand they
beheld the whitened skeletons of men, of
horses and of burros. In some places
they found the remains Of what apDered
10 have been an expedition-ruined
vehicles, with the skeletons OF horses
and men lying about. Vultures swooped
down upon them with angry cries, and
other birds of prey circled high above
their heads, following them as they
progressed.
When night came they followed the
north star, ore man trying to sleep while
the others drove. At daybreak there
was nothing to relieve the eye. AL
around them was the cleaning sand;
overhead the brassy sky, and far away
the rocky sides of mountains on which
no vegetable life was ever found.
YEARLY they pressed on, confident that
the worst was over, but when almost IN
sight of the east range of the Amargosas,
to which they were bound, the blasting
heat played them amerciless prank.
The scorching which the men and
beasts were enduring with reasonable
foritude were too much for the water
barrels and their wagons. The wood Of
which they were made shrank and
shrivelled until they fell to pieces, first
the wagons and then the barrels. AL
attempts to keep them together were
useless. With the water gone the party
vas well nigh il despair, but when the
wagons, too, fell to pieces there was o
minute when all recognized the proba-
bilitY that another expedition was to be
sdded to the long list of those which had
gone into that abode of death never 20
be heard Of agsin. When things ap-
pesred at their worst, Carter spied some
thing in the white sand few rods away,
and, hurrying toward it, found the
pieces of wagon which had belonged
to a '49er whose skeleton lay close ct
hand. Wood never decays in that at
mosphere, and of the three wrecked
WAGONS the men were able to gear up
one vehicle that would convey their re-
naming supplies and their tools.
This delay came very near being fatal
20 all concerned. One horse died IN the
harness, and Carter was prostrated so
completely that for q time his life was
despaired of. Toiling painfully along,
now without water and with no hope OF
any until they could clear the desolate
valley, Judson and Spring were at
length compelled in their agony to dig
deep into the sand in the hope Of find
ing moisture with which to quench their
intolerable thirst. At depth of few
feet they came upon water, but it was
81 They drank of it, but it only
served - increase their suffering, and
when they gave some of it to their horses
the beasts refused to swallow it. With
8 firm determination to press on to the
utmost limit of their strength, the -1en
continued their journey, and, at Length,
more dead than alive, they emerged from
the valley and began the ascent of the
mountains.
Here they found some bunch grass or
which their horses feasted, and spring
of water, copious draughts OF which soor
revived the entire party. Tarrying a
this spring for day OF two for the pur