Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-30

OF the Colorado river with orders to
keep going until they get to the mouth
of the river or strike break in the
bank. These Indians are trained to do
long distance running and will make the
trip very quickly.
THEORIES.
Although the statement made by Con-
ductor Sippy seems to be almost con-
elusive, there were late last night many
who still held different theories. One
suggestion is that an underground river
has got off on a rampage and has broken
out at the point named, and another is
that the Gulf of California has broken
through the county which borders on
the edge Of the desert basin below sea
level and is doing the damage.
General Hewitt, superintendent of the
Southern Pacific at this point, has a
theory regarding the phenomenon. He
states that last winter the Colorado river
was higher than it has been known to
be for many years. At the rivers
mouth the tides Of the Gulf of California
are enormous, the average rise being
about thirty feet. The current of the
river and the power of the tide produce
an enormous "hore," which is SO dam
gerous as to be greatly dreaded by navi-
gators. The general thinks it possible
that these three forces, the current of
the river, the force of the tide, and of
the BORE" have eroded the west portion
of the bank at the upper part of the
delta until it has become so weak as to
give way, letting great river of water
into that portion of the desert below the
sea level.
CONDUCTOR sIPPY's STATEMENT.
The first authentic information that
has thus far been received to account for
the sea at salton comes from Conductor
Sippy,who was in charge of the overland
train which arrived last night. He re-
ports that at Ogleby he met Superin
tendent Blaisdell, of the Cargo Muchaca
mines, on the depot platform, and the
latter told him that he had just learned,
through Indian runners, that big break
had occurred in the west bank of the
Colorado river between Ogleby and Pilot
Knob, and that the water was pouring in
onto the lowlands in terrific volume.
1t was the opinion of the Indians that
the break occurred as much as three
weeks ago, during the height of the flood
in the Colorado, and that from very
small opening ic had grown and expand
ed to its present proportions.
Salton is seventy miles from the place
where the water is said to escape from
the river, and it must necessarily have
taken the flood many days to creep over
the dry sandy desert and reach that
point where it made itself known last
Friday. The porous nature of the soil
and rapid evaporation would prevent
any but very great volume of water
making any headway at all across the
desert.
At Salton, where the overland arrived
at 8 20 p. M, the water was within a
mile of the tracks, and passengers look
ing out to the southwark were under the
impression that it was a mirage they
saw, until informed that it was real
inland sea they were locking at and not
an artificial effect. The salt works at the
last named hour had been entirely
abandoned and the water was standing
"a inches deep over the rails leading
down to the factory, having risen two
feet in the past twenty-four hours. The
rise up to the Southern Pacific tracks at
this point is considerable, and even at
it's present rate of advance it will be
sarna time -hAfarA tha puatar- rAaahas- the.
road bed. u e
Last night at 8 O'Clock, before the ar
rival of the overland, the Southern Pa
cific headquarters in this city received
from Salton to the effect that
the wind had changed to the west, and
the water was slightly receding under
its pressure.
A sHAKY SOIL.
Salton and the salt works are located
on sort of marsh, marked on the map
as ''Dry Lake" Immense quantities of
rock salt are quarried there, and the
manner of obtaining table salt is very
simple, and is in line with the subter-
ranean flow idea. Long trenches are
dug in the basin of this dry lake. These
are left in the evening, and by morning
they will be found full of water, which
has oozed up from the sand. During
the day this evaporates, and in the bot
tom of the trench will be found de-
posit of the finest kind of table salt,
which requires very little further treat
ment before being ready for market.
The ground around the salt de-
pOclV 10 Vi very Sldky
nature. Mr.. Percy Ross of this
city lived there in the employ
Of the railroad for some time. He told
HERALD reporter yesterday that the
ground was so weak that it would not
bear the weight Of locomotive on the
switch from the main line of the South
ern Pacific to the works, and that the
salt company had found it necessary to
use light dummy engines for traffic pur-
poses, the old get-off-and- push dummy
Of the former road to Long Beach having
been purchased for the line. AS an in
stance of the instability of the ground,
Mr. Ross stated that he once was carry
ing heavy piece of iron near the mill
when he accidentally let it drop, and it
cut through the earth like a knife |
through butter, and disappeared forever.
A few Of the railroad men familiar |
with the country think that the water
may come from the mysterious White
water river. This river is one of natures |
freaks. The HERALD last winter chrcn-
cled its sudden disappearance. One
lay it stopped flowing and was not seen
ior months. 1t completely disappeared,
and number of people who had been
on it for a water supply at
Whitewater station, were in very dis
agreeable position for long time. One
however, they awoke, and
we're delighted to find that the river had
got over its ''jag," and was calmly re-
posing in its little bed as of yore.