The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-08-26
THE VALLEY OF DEATH.
DR.. MERRIAM TELLS WHAT GOVERN
MENT SURVEYORS SAW.
Death Valley. the Terror of Wandering
Immigrants in Eastern California and
Southwestern Nevada, Described by
One Who Has Travelled There,

Southwestern Nevada. Described By
One Who Has Travelled There.
DR.. @. Hart Merriam, chief of a govern
ment biological survey which has been
working for months in Death valley, is in
the city. DR.. Merriam has studied closely
the strange region of which SO much has
been said, and he is the first in the city
qualified to speak of the valley. He has
camped within the glare of its salt beds,
has felt its intolerable heat andsviewed its
splendid desotation, and has faced its
scerching blasts of wind and red hot sand
that rage between the towering black
mountains which wall the silent chasm.
He has been in the midst of its death
dealing elements, has tasted of its poisoned
wells, and has forced his way over its
treacherous sands, and over ground that
crumbled beneath the weight of man OF
horse. He told the story of his adventures
to reporter last night.
"The valley and its lowering black walls
Of barren rock" he said, ARE weird and
strangely sublime in their desolation. For
miles and miles the curious mountains
may be seen outlined against the clear sky.
From the top Of Telescope peak, the high
est of the Panamint or western range
which shuts the valley in, one may look
down dizzy black precipice 1900 feet to
the level of the valley, as white as snow.
Stretching from the mountains foot ara
the glistening fields of salt. Here and
there are running streams of salt and min
eral waters. To drink of them is to die.
The view is closed in by the gloomy cliffs
of the Funeral mountains, which form an
| impenetrable barrier at the east of the
the canyon. The scene is one of violent con-
trasts of glazing whites and dead blacks.
WHERE NATURE is AWFUL
1.-THE valley is the most barren and the
| lowest of series in eastern California and
southwestern Nevada. At a rough esti-
mate it is about $50 feet below the level of
the sea. 1t runs generally north aud
south, although its worst region turns to
the northwest. This portion has been
named Mesquite valley.
eft is region far worse than Death val
ley proper. The valley may be compared
to the Grand canyon of the Colorado. 1t is
rather an immense chasm than a valley.
1t is about $40 miles long, aud at its broad
est part is only eighteen miles wide. In
some parts 1t is no more than fifteen miles
| in width.
SIN this frightful place, baked and Bills
| tered by the intolerable heat, holding with
| In itself innumerabe elements of death,
| revealing strange aspects of natural desc
! lation, our party has been at work for
months.
"On either side of the valley, stretching
almost its entire length, is a range of
mountains, absolutely barren of animal
and vegetable life. The western range is
the Panamint, averaging in height about
5000 feet. The eastern range is the Funer-
al, suggestive and not unfit name. The
Funeral mountains rise fully 1000 feet
above the level of the sea.
These mountains are black, with the ex-
ception of curious patches of red rock.
Away to the north is Mount Magruder.
Beyond in the distance rise the heights of
| the Sierras. Almost at the southern limit
of the valley is Mount Ivanwatch. Behind
it is the Devils Playground region of
absolute barrenness.
Down the valley hot, suffocating wind
blows with terrific velocity. In it's course
through the stricken region it gathers a
black cloud of hot, shifting sand that has
blinded many An unwary horse and rider.
Under the glistening beds of crystallized
SdAC AL pldCco 1ES SUlGdulo VI SdlU
water Beneath these is still another bed
of salt.
'In other parts of the valley are wastes
of hot sand drawn in some places into high
mounds by the whirling blasts that sweep
down the canyon. There, too, is the most
curious earth have seen-self raising earth
it has been called As far as the eye can
see it appears in curving outline, up and
down, as if pulled by a natural yeast The
unfortunate animal that steps upon the
little hills will crash through, for they are
not much more than fragile crusts.
Still stranger is that section of the val
ley which for want of a better name is
called salt earth. Innumerable pinnacles,
tapering TO points as fine as needles aud
over foot long, rise in close array from
the ground. They are as hard as stone and
as dangerous as sharpened steel Beneath
and hidden by them are pitfalls, a tumble
into which means broken leg or arm.
Then, too, are the rich fields of borax,
which have lured many man to death.
Dreadful as is Death valley, its north
western arm, Mesquite valley, is worse.
All of the water upon its surface is poison.
The wind has thrown the sand into i'm
mense mounds, one of which is three miles
long and 500 feet high. 1t was in this val
ley that the immigrants lost their lives.
Water may be obtained only by digging
deep wells. and then it is none too pure.
PLANTS AND ANIMALS FOUND.
"Our party, the biological survey Of the
United States government, has been in the
valley for months The general purpose of
the department of agriculture under which
we work, Is to collect facts relating to the
distribution of species with variations of
temperature and humidity throughout the
United States, and particularly in the
western part. The results obtained will be
of the utmost value to agriculture, for they
will save millions OF dollars spent IN ex-
pertinent by farmers who wish to test tbs
capacity and character of their land.
Eve have found that in certain zones
certain fora and fauna flourish. Each
zone has its peculiar species which will not
flourish in others. These zones are both
horizontal and vertical
THE party chose the desolste region OF
Death valley for its lsbors. for from it and
not far distant can be traced the seven
zones we have established. The valley,
Notwithstanding it's barren elements, has
many phases Of life.
ut has thirty or forty species Of amin ais
and fully as many OF vegetable growth.
Nothing, Of course, will live on the salt or
borax bottoms, but on the edges Of these
districts various hardy plants thrive In
the sand wastes are g0phers, mice, bats
and many other snimaIs and not a few
reptiles.
Many theories have been advanced 10
account for the formation Of Death valley.
l think it quite probable that it was once