Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-03
BELOW SEA LEVEL.
What DR.. Lindley Has to Say of the
Salton Region.

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Salton Region.
DR.. Walter Lindley, in 1888, published
brochure entitled Below Sea Level
and High Attitudes in Southern Cali
fornia. The first paper contains many
interesting facts about the submerged
desert at Salton, and from it are taken
the following excerpts:
In the eastern part OF San Diego
county, about one hundred miles from
Los Angeles, is depression traversed
by the Southern Pacific railroad, known
to geographers as the San Felipe sink,
but commonly called, on account of the
innumerable shells spread over its cur
face, the Conchilla valley.
The unobserving transcontinental
traveller over the Southern Pacific road
would travel the one hundred miles
west of Yuma-on the Colorado river
without giving a glance out OF the car
window, but he would think he was in
the Colorado desert, and wish the train
would go faster; yet this very spot is one
of the most remarkable on the face of
the globe.
DR.. ]. 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 we'll 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 saws, 81 found it to be the
old beach of sea-" find nothing else
noted of this country until the survey
ing party of the Southern Pacific rail-
road, in running the line from Los An
geles to Yuma, found that sea-level was
at the point where DIR. Widney had
noted the ancient beach. They then
gradually descended to the south until
they reached a depression of two hun
dred and siXty-eight feet below sea-level
at point near Salton.
This basin is about one hundred and
thirty miles in length by thirty miles in
average width. The deepest point is
about three hundred and sixty feet be-
low sea-level. Along the northern mar
gin of this basin, right up against the
mountains, are great numbers of date
palms. These tropical trees are indigo
nous to this valley, and many of them
reach height of eighty feet. When
ripe, single bunch of fruit weighs one
hundred pounds. 1t has taste very
similar to the date palm of commerce.
The tree has large fan-leaves, and is the
same as can be seen in almost every
park and yard in the towns of
Southern California. The passengers
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 beneath them.
At Salton, on the Southern Pacific
railroad, the surface of the earth for
nearly ten miles square is covered with
a crust Of salt from four inches to foot
thick. stopped there in midsummer
and went out on this great white field
about noon. The mercury indicated
105 degrees F. in the house, but out in
the sunshine, with the dazzling refec-
tion from the glistening surface that ex-
tended for miles ON each side, the tenn
perature was probably 130 degrees F.
The workmen out in this peculiar har-
vest-feld were as cheerful as any set of
men l ever saw, and there was far less
exhibition of suffering from heat
than is to be seen, ordinarily, in
July, in the wheat-felds OF the
Mississippi valley. The low relative
humidity explains the almost total alb
sence of sunstroke here. The atmos-
phere in this region, adulterated by the
chlorine gases emanating from the salt
beds, must be nearly aseptic. There are
extensive mills here for grinding the
salt. 1t is not put through any system
of publication, but, after grinding,
proves to be excellent for table use. Sew
eral hundred tons are thus prepared
every month and shipped away.
A fax s1oo of hav lo g.,
mud volcanoes, which are equal in Won
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 COM
PEELED 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 near the north
ern rim of the basin, being only twenty
feet below sea level.
In this valley live about 400 of the
Cohuilla Indians. This is an interesting
tribe. DIR. Stephen Bowers, in paper
read before the Ventura County Society
of Natural History, March 5, 1888, said
that he believed them to be of Aztec
origin. They are sun and fire worship
ers, and believe in the transmigration of
souls, and that their departed friends
sometimes enter into coyotes, and thus
linger about their former habitation.
They practice cremation. Their prin-
cipaI article of food ia the mesol1it bean.
which they triturate in mortars of wood
or stone, after which the meal is sifted
and the coarser portion is used as food
for their horses and cattle, and the finer
is made into cakes for family use. :.
To the Public.
For the benefit of the public, and by
the untiring demands of the mayor and
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