Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-10-14
Below the Sea-Nature's Pneumatic
Cabinet.


TsY WALTER LINDLEy, NJ. D., Los ANGELES.
/ recently read that an American of
wealth was establishing sanatorium in
the valley of the river Jordan, near the
Dead Sea. He ascertained that bron-
chial affection was relieved where the
barometric pressure was great, as it is
in this valley of the Holy Land. This is
the most marked depression on the face
of the earth, being 1,200. feet below sea-
level. The gentleman makes the reason
able assertion that where atmospheric
pressure is greatest, as in the depres-
sions, respiration is easiest.
In the eastern part OF San Diego coun-
ty, about one hundred miles from Los
Angeles, is depression traversed by the
Southern Pacific railroad, known to geog-
raphers as the San Felipe Sink, but
commonly called-on account OF the in
Vulnerable shells spread over its surface
the Conchilla Valley.
The unobserving transcontinental trav-
eler over the Southern Pacific railroad
would travel the 100 miles west of Yuma
-on the Colorado river-without giving
q glance out of the car window, but he
would think he was in the Colorado Des-
ert, and wish the train would go faster );
yet this very spot is one of the most re-
markable on the face of the globe.
DIR. j. P. Widney, of Los Angeles,
while surgeon in the United States
Army, crossed this region with troops
twenty-one years ago. He then noticed
surrounding this territory well defined
line along the mountain sides, always at
the same level. Above that line the
rocks are sharp and jagged, showing that
for ages the water had stood at that
level. He says, 81 found it to be the
old beach of sea-" find nothing else
noted of this country until the surveying
party of the Southern Pacific railroad, in
running the line from Los Angeles to
Yuma, found that sea level was at the
point where DR.. Widney had noted the
ancient beach. They then gradually de-
scended to the south until they reached
Q depression OF 26S feet below sea level,
at point near Salton.
This basin is about 130 miles in length
by thirty miles in average width. The
deepest point is about $50 feet below sea-
level. Along the northern margin o.
this basin, right up against the noun
tains, are great numbers OF date-palms
These tropical trees are Indigenous tt
this valley, and many of them reach 6
height of eighty feet. When ripe, a sin
gle bunch Of fruit weighs one hundred
pounds. 1t has taste very similar tc
the date-palm of commerce. The tree
has large fan leaves, and is the same a.
can be seen in almost every park and
yard in the towns of Southern California
The passenger on the Southern Pacific
railroad, by glancing out of the north
side of the car at Indio, can see these
giant sentinels keeping silent vigil over
the plains beheath them.
At Salton, on the Southern Pacific
Railroad, the surface of the earth for
nearly ten miles square is covered with
crust of salt four inches to foot thick.
/ stopped there in midsummer and went
out on this great white field about noon.
The mercury indicated los degrees F.
in the house, but out in the sunshine,
with the dazzling reflection from the
glistening surface that extended for
miles on each side, the temperature was
probably 1O5 degrees F. The workmen
out in this peculiar harvest field were as
cheerful as any set Of men ever saw,
and there was far less exhibi-
ton of suffering from heat than
is to be seen, ordinarily, in July. in the
wheat fields of the Mississippi Valley.
The low relative humidity explains the
total absence of sunstroke here. The
atmosphere in this region, adulterated
by the chlorine gases emanating from
the salt-beds, must be nearly aseptic.
There are extensive mills here for grind
ing the salt. 1t is not put through any
system of puriication, but, after grind
ing, proves to be excellent for table use.
Several hundred tons are thus prepared
every month and shipped away.
A few miles east Of here are the famous
mud volcanoes, which are equal in Won
der to the geysers of this State. Owing
to the treacherous character of the ground
around them they have never been
thoroughly examined. Professor Hanks,
the State Mineralogist, undertook it, but
breaking through the crust he was so
severely burned that he was compelled
to abandon his investigations. Here is
an extensive, almost unexplored field
for some adventurous scientist.
Indio is the place to stop and make
headquarters for tours through this in
teresting country. 1t is the principal
station in the valley, and is near the
northern rim of the basin, being only
twenty feet below sea-level. The sandy
plains around Indio were formerly con-
sidered hopeless barren waste, but the
advent of the railroad has made great
changes. Good water is supplied by sur
face wells; but in order to have water
for irrigation, artesian wells have been
bored. There is one, two and three
fourths miles east of Indio that is now
moving 1000 gallons per hour. This
flowing water was reached at depth of
only lis feet, after boring through layers
of sand, clay, sand, tough blue clay,
clay, coarse gravel, clay and sand. Or
snges and various other kinds of fruit
are being grown here, and melons, to-
matoes and berries ripen several weeks
earlier than at Los Angeles and other
places near the coast. There are in this
vicinity about forty thousand acres of ex-
cellent land. The visitor here, on wit
Messing the water flowing from the arte-
sian wells, the grass growing, the melons
ripening, and the peach trees blooming,
can fitly say with Isaiah: "The Lord
shall comfort all the waste places. He
will make the desert like the garden, and
the desert shall rejoice, and bloom as the
rose. For in the wilderness shall waters
break out, and streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become
pool, and the thirsty land springs Of
water"
In this valley live about 400 of the
Cohuilla Indians. This is an interesting
tribe. DR.. Stephen Bowers, in a paper