The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-09-08
TIE EASTERN COAST.
Sights and Scenes Near the Gulf
Of California.
ISLANDS BARREN AND FoRBIDDING
A Small Salt Lake, Similar in Character to
Our Own Dead Seattle GuanO Islands
The Guardian Angel-Etc.

LOWER CALIFORNIA, Mexico, Sept l,
1Ss9.-[Special correspondence of THE
HERALD The whole eastern coast of this
peninsula, bordering on
THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA,
all the way from Cape San Lucas at the
extreme southern point, to the Colorado
river flowing down through Arizona from
the north, is, with few exceptions. high and
precipitous, mountains rising abruptly
close to the shore. Strange to say, the
depth Of water is generally much greater
on the Gulf side than on the Pacific; and
though winds are higher on the eastern
waters, and tremendous hurricanes and
local cyclones occur Casually towards the
close of the rainy season., there are many
little harbors AID sheltered caves in which
vessels may find protection. During the
greater part of the year the weather along
shore is all that could be desired the fervOr
of the tropic sun being tempered by ocean
breezes and the warm days always sue
ceeded by cool nights. Although there are
two distinct seasons, the wet and the dry,
comparatively little rain falls during the
former, its scarcity being partially com
pensated for by exceedingly heavy dews.
Those destructive and much-dreaded hur
ricanes, called Las COrd0ndzOS de San Fran
cisco (becaUs H5hey invariably occur dur
lingo the feast-days of Saint Francis, be
tween the 1st and 5th of October), are, for
tunately, of short duration, but some times
of such violence that nothing can withstand
them. A vessel surprised by one in a
roadstead is sure to either founder at her
anchors, or to break from her mornings
anA no Ir.iEvnu acbpra rOnSaprnr,tly j
sharp look out is maintained all through the
month of disaster and at the smallest sign
of a cOrdOndzO, every ship puts out to sea
or sends into the Offing. Yet, despite pre-
caution, additions are made every year to
the wrecks that streW the desOlate shores,
and men 60 down to swell the skeleton
population Of the coral paved cities below.
The numerous islands of the gulf, like
the adjacent coasts, are generally barren
and forbidding-with few notable eXcep-
tions. Among the latter may be mentioned
San Josef, big island of volcanic origin,
seventeen miles long by an average breadth
of four miles-which is covered with the
richest vegetation even to the tops of its
highest peaks, rising sharply 1000 feet
above the sea, Its
UNINHABiTRD BY MAN.
Vet much frequented by hunters, for in its
numerous deep GTTGy0S, or ravines, great
herds of deer and antelope are found. On
this island the palma christi, or castor
bean, grows into great tree with a woody
trunk; and among other useful cabinet
woods, the ana &c cato. or cats claw,
abound. The latter is leguminOus tree
its branches bristling with curved thorns
which resemble cats claws. The wood is
very firm and durable, taking a polish as
fine as rosewood, and much more beautiful.
Not far from this island, on the peninsula,
is Comondu, from which point roads run
over the Sierra de la Giganta to Mulege,
about seventy miles farther up the coast,
and to LOretO nearer La PaZ The road
or rather the trail-toward the capital looks
impossible to any but mountain goats, zig
tagging up the almost perpendicular faces
of their cliffs; yet / am told that it is often
traversed, for at the foot of La Giganta
(here nearly six thousand feet high, is the
wonderfully rich, but now unwOrked
copper mine, called FL Sance. ComOndu is
an ancient mission. where may be seen the
ruins of what was doubtless once the finest
church in the two CALIFORNIA;. Most of
the houses of the poor village that clusters
around it are of cut and polished stone
each monument to departed glory; while
the remaining habitatiOnsare of wild bamboo
lightly matched with long, feathery palm.
The population is about one thousand, the
little valley of Comondu, being not more
wide, but extremely fertile and in a high
state Of cultivation. The principal products
are pGrochs (the native sugar. wine,
fruits and deerskins from the neighboring
island. At the head OF the valley is singu
lar canon, cut in the solid lava, 100 feet
deep and with perpendicular sides; and
through it runs fine stream Of perennial
water, affording an abundant supply to the
valley and the villages.
Mo-, f-0T, nc NavsfN f 4hO
peninsula is Salinas bay, where is salt
pond that deserves especial mention. Near
the head Of the bay, SCI a ated from the sea
by a single beach, only quarter of mile
wide, but over which
THE WATER NEVER FLOWS,
is a salt lake, a mile and half long by mile
wide, the water in which regularly rises
and falls with the tide, although there is no
perceptible communication with the sea.
Tne supply of perfectly pure salt from the
pond seems ineXnaustable, as what is taken
away in one week is fully reproduced in
next. The salt is II 9cipitated in the form
of pure crystals, and has only to be raked
from the bottom, packed and shipped to
San Francisco; where it is ground, and
without any publication whatever, is sold
as the finest table salt. This pond is con-
nected by railway with landing-pl in
GCdlluhS DdN anu d SLlall Village - SlbudUeu
on the single beach that intervenes. At the
top of high cliff near by-at place called
Perico (''parrot') point, from its resem-
blance to a parrots beak-is a natural cave
of enormous proportions, followed out of
the reddish rock, to which all the nations
of the village resort, en- mdSsC, for pro
longed picnic during the summer months,
as much TO escape mats and mosquitoes as
the heat. Long-shelled oysters, turtles,
shrimps, many varieties CT eatable fish,
blrds and their eggs, and considerable
small game are found in the Immediate
vicinity, without much effort on the part
of the happy picnicers.
Then the reIis Raza island, widely known
for its valuable deposits of guano-so
called, which is not guano at all, being com
posed principally of igneous rock, which
has undergone a chemical change by the
action upon it of the phosphate and am
monia contained in the sporement of sea
birds. This surface dust is collected in
bags and shipped the layer just beneath it
being full of ''clinkers'' which requires
crushing before using. These clinkers are
much richer in the phosphates than the
pulverized guano, and are more easily
gathered and shipped. The birds that fire.
quent the island are principally gulls, and
they come II such numbers as to literally
crowd the ground. For several years the
island has been worked by a company of
Americans, who, during the first two years,
shipped more than ten thousand tons of
gusno, principally to European PORTS.
But tie strangest island, perhaps, of all
is that called
ANGEL DE la GUARDIA,
Guardian Angel'-high, rocky, and bar
ren, lying in direction nearly parallel to
the coast line, more than forty miles long,
with an average width of ten miles A
range of mountains extends throughout its