, 1891-02-10

fornia, near the Arizona line. Imagine n
narrow strip Of arid plain, shut in between
two mighty mountain walls, the peaks
stretching up into a burning sky.
when" said one Of the most experienced
of travellers to the writer, II too at the
entrance to the weird place there was some
thing unearthly in the view. A gray haze,
bounded by the fatal mirage, hung over the
surface. The level of the basin, It's feet
below tidewater, was a blackish gray, with
scarcely a piece Of vegetation to rest the
eye.
Long before a white man ever looked
upon the spot it was called Death valley
by the natives on account Of the direful in
huence it eNerted upon man and beast. The
ground between the bony ridges that rise
on either side isan alkali paste into which
the horse inks to his knees, Hair and
hide are eaten away by the strong sub
stance, and unless one can find the paths
which cross the plain, death will come be-
fore half the distance has been passed"
There is something uncanny about the
whole appearance of things in the valley
the absence Of vegetation, the long, level
reaches Of white sand, looking in the wi
light like a lake, and the quiet, which is
u~nspeakable. Blu greatest and most fear
full of all is the neat. AS into n natural
furnace the suns rays are poured, without
a cloud to mitigate the intensity. When
Professor Gilbert, the famous Reologist,
succeeded in crossing a narrow arm of the
valley almost twenty years ago, escaping
only with his life, the thermometers in his
saddle bags ran up to $50 degrees and then
burst.
The first white ran who ever visited
Death valley was Capt. Bendire, a Cali
fornia Forty-niner. Hemade his attempt to
cross it in 1869, and was unsuccessful in
more han skirting the edge. He took back
tales of the terrible place, and Immediately
a number Of miners, excited by the addi-
ions to his recital made by the Indians,
determined to explore the region in hopes
of finding gold. Fitting themselves out
with plenty Of tools, and carrying enough
water to hast ordinarily for three days,
they started, a company of four.
Slipping rapidly down from the shelf of
rock that surrounds the plain, they found
themselves in a journey Of two miles 5000
feet below the starting point. Their aim
was a precipitous bluff on the opposite
side, takingi in what appeared to be an oasis
with trees growing thereon midway across
the valley. But their water supply di-
minished rapidly. The air, much drier
than even that of Sahara, and the great
heat put their bodies through n kind of an
~evaporating process. So fast did this evap-
Grafton go on that a gallon of water only
lasted as a pint in an ordinary atmosphere.
Even with their abundant supply, before
they had been out a day their blood grew
thick and fever stared them in the face.
Near where they camped the first night
they found the dried up form of al Indian,
and beside it a large gold nugget.
Wild with hope they toiled on, intending
to push up to one of the georges that
reached into the valley from the west, at
the head of which they hoped to find a
spring. But they did not know which to
seek, and after toiling to the read of one,
and finding nothing but bare and parched
rocks, one Of the party went mad with
heat, and they were forced to bando him.
Before night two more laid down to die,
and the solitary survivor was clambering
the rocks with feverish haste, eudeavoring
to escape from the alkali sink in which his
friends had persisted. They did not need
burial. Their bodies shriveled up to mum
mylike forms, and may lie where they
fell through all eternity, staring up at the
brazen sky. The miner at last reached
civilization a mere skeleton of his former
self.
In 1873 a party of emigrauts was crossing
the plains on the way to southern Cali