The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-07-11
II MAY MAKE A GARDEN.
The Extraordinary Changes Likely
to Occur in the Great COL
orado Desert
A Permanent Lake Would Com
pletely Transform Existing
Climatic Conditions.

Description Of tho Remarkable Region IL
which tho Scientists of the World
Are Now Interested.
The extraordinary transformation which
ia taking place in the desert which is named
Colorado after the great river which runs
by it, is attracting the widest attention
from scientific men, says the Denver News.
The following description of the country
and of possible changes will prove interest
ing:
The Colorado desert covers 5000 square
miles and extends about 100 miles from the
Colorado river to Seven Palms, on the
Southern Pacific railroad. 1t is in San
Diego county, the southernmost county of
California. 1t includes the Idaho or Goa
huilla valley lying between the San Ber-
nardino range of mountains on the north
east and the San Jacinto range on the
southwest. The Southern Pacific railroad
runs through the northern part of the
desert and the descent from Cactus on the
south, 395 feet above the sea level, to Sal
ton, seventy-fve miles north and 263 feet
below the sea level. is said to have no par
allel in railroading in this country. The
desert is a great waste of granite points,
sandhills, dry lakes, mud volcanoes, hot
springs, a growth Of cactus and intolerable
heat. The soil is sandy, alkaline and
saline, with scanty vegetation. The sur
face reflects light like a mirror.
TIL dry lakes are fat, yellowish white
patches of soil that to the eye are as level
and smooth as a marble floor. They vary
in extent from a few yards to three and
four miles in diameter. During the rainy
season they are covered with a few inches
of water and are thus csnverted into actual
lakes for a short time. TIL water evapo-
rates rapidly and with approaching warm
weather they soon become dry. During
the greater part of the year they are hard
and smooth and glare and glitter under the
scorching rays of the sun like immense
sheets of iron. A traveller. in describing one
of these dry lakes, said:
A perfect lake was visible: not as is usu-
ally the case in the desert mirages, blue and
placid, rejecting the stunted growth of
vegetation that lined its shores, but ap-
perently in motion, like a large body of
water just after the cessation OF a heavy
wind. The waves were as real to the eye
as the genuine article. Another point of
view was reached and the waves and water
suddenly disappeared and the white. bare
surface of the dry lake flashed out in its
place. The trees were gone and only the
dusty CROSSWORD was there. Crossword
is not pretty, and it smokes like tar when it
burns, but it is all the fuel to be found in
the desert, and even greasewood is hard to
get sometimes.
The soil in many places is very peculiar,
1t is known as "self-raising ground" At
ter being wet it rises up and cracks open,
and, after becoming dry, is SO light and
soft that one will sink six and seven inches
into it at every step. Stretches of this
ground miles in extent are found in many
places in the great Colorado sink.
Lizards and horned toads abound. They
dart past or lie painting on the ground I'M
noticed. unless it be some peculiarly marked
or brilliantly colored one. The most COM
mon lizard is a light colored. trim built fell
low, about four inches long, with a tapering
tail about the same length as his body.
Near the end his tail is marked with
white and black rings alternately. When
alarmed he darts off like an arrow. There
are many kinds of lizards seen on the
desert-white. black and notified, with
bright colored sides.
Ii was noticed by q traveller that horned
toads would to a degree assume the color of
the ground or rocks they live upon, like
chameleons. A horned toad is no toad at
Oil, " q Aul JILL u III lILAtSSy
the chuckwalla, for instance, will bite, and
if strong enough can give one a severe
pinch. The chuckwalla is a favorite arti-
Gle of diet with the Indian. Its meat is
white, and when thoroughly cooked resem-
bles chicken in taste.
Rattlesnakes are numerous. The most
interesting of these ia the ''sidewinder."
This is a small grayish snake with ordi-
nary rattler's markings. Its length is about
eighteen inches. Over each eye is a horn
about one-eighth of an inch long. The
peculiar feature of this snake are its horns
and its occasional mode of locomotion. 1t
is the most dreaded of the rattlesnakes.
Many lives have been lost on the arid
desert. In many of the cases of death by
heat and thirst gross carelessness and iG-
norance of known watering places was the
primary cause, though it is difficult to con-
celve of the terrible heat of those veritable
ovens of the desert. The sun shooting its
burning rays into the deep and at times
MINDLESS valleys, and being thrown back
by the glazing, whitsned surface, fairly
cooks the atmosphere. Precipitation is so
rapid and profuse that it seems impossible
to drink enough water. The canteen will
no more than leave the lips when they are
dry and parched again. Conservative men,
men who are acquainted with the country,
say that it is a very dangerous thing to
travel even a short distance at the hottest
time of the year. The thermometer fire.
quently registers 100 to 14O in the shade
during July and August.
OF plants there is scare ANYTHING to be
discovered besides cacti. which only repre-
sents a sort of vegetable half-life. and
clumps of chaparral that are gray instead
of green. One sort of cactus that grows to
be five or Elk feet in height, with extended
branches, is called the dead man, be-
cause each stalk in the night looks like n
corpse by the wayside. In rare spots
where water has gathered may be seen a
singular heshy bush without leaves and
with thick green stems. Such vegetation
as there is is rank and spiny, its gray or
dull olive hues harmonizing weirdly with
the parched and barren aspect of the great
alkalio crust.
Those who have visited it say that i. is
beyond human powers of description to
picture the wholly unnatural scene to be be-
held In some parts of the descrt-the vast
stretches of white plain variegated with
black lava, the allurinp mirage, the total
absence of trees, the dearth of animal life.
and the intense heat, from which there ia
no escape. Here and there, too, are pebble
beds, miles IN extent, made up of agate
moss agate, chalcedony, jasper and obsi-
dim.
The Indlo valley resembles the ereat
Death valley many miles north. which a
government exploring party recently ira
verscd. Special attention was paid hy the
exploring party to the animal life. Among
the interesting animals were found three