The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1891-07-17
THE POOL OF DEATH.
A Sparkling Spring That E1haIes Gas
Which None Can Breathe and Live.


"Talk about Death Valley" said
Gavin McNab 81 know spot in this
state where no living thing can exist
five seconds, and the place is within
thirty feet of a travelled country road"
''Tell us about it." said the gentlemen
clustered around the speaker.
"Well," said Mr.. McNab, Il will, but
if did not know there was a supera-
bundance of proof concerning the story
/ am about to relate to you, would
hesitate to tell it. Along the foot of
the Mendocino mountains, in the county
by that name, runs much-traveled
| road, which leads from the town of
Hopland to Ukiah. The road is on a
bench or shelf above a valley created
by the Russian river, which. like nearly
all California streams, is constantly
changing it's channel, and hence it is
sometimes within a hundred yards of
the road at the nearest point and again
half-mile away. When the annual
overfiows occur it spreads over the
whole valley and is a mile or more
wide. l mention this in order that you
may understand the nature of the val
ley. 1t is dry river bed, all sand and
gravel, with here and there a bunch of
scrubby willows.
I'm clump of these stunted trees, at
a point about three miles from Hopland
and about thirty feet from the road l
have mentioned, there bubbles spring
of the clearest sparkling water you ever
saw. The only thing peculiarly notice
able about the spring from a distance
is the loud kissing sound it makes as it
gushes up out of the gravelly soil, 1t
sounds more like boiling water with oc-
casional Jets of steam escaping than it
does like the ordinary purling of a
stream. Approach it and you will be
startled to see lying around the spring
the skeletons of hundreds of birds, scores
of small animals, such as coons foxes,
and the like, and nearly always there
will be a body or two of birds or ami
mails in more or less advanced stage
of decomposition near the edge of the
spring. If a man is wise he will be con-
tent with an inspection of the mat
tractive spot from a distance, more es-
pecially if there happens to be the car
cass of a steer lying beside it with the
nose an inch or two from the water.
The fact is gentlemen, that there rises
constantly from the spring a gas so
noXious and deadly that one Whit of it
is sufficient to eXtinguish life.
The terrible character of the spring"
continued Mr.. McNab, lis well known
to all who reside in the neighborhood,
and they tell some horrible stories con-
corning it. One day the little siX-year-
old daughter of farmer living near
the spring wandered away from home.
Its absence was not noticed for an hour
or two, and then the parents went in
search of their child. They found her
lying dead beside the spring with a lit
tie dead bird clutched in her hand.
She had evidently seen the bird lying
beside the stream. and being attracted
by the bright colors of its plumage, had
tried to pick it up. and in so doing had
inhaled the gas arising from the water
and died with the bird
Another time" said the narrator of
this strange story, "a squaw who was
supposed to be recovering from spree
wandered down by the spring. She
probably started to the river to get n
drink, when she discovered the spring
and knelt beside it, dying in that posi-
ton. The strangest thing about it is
that, we'll known as is the deadly char
acter of the spring, there is absolutely
no warning posted, 70 fence around it,
nor protection against it of any kind
other than a few limbs of trees and
bushes thrown over the place by far
mers to keep their stock away from it,
and the last time | saw the place even
the brush had been scattered until the
spring was uncovered. A venturesome
man once held his breath and nostrils
and leaned over the spring to hear the
noise it made, which he described as
something terrible.
The water is thought to be compare
lively wholesome, but nothing is known
positively about it, as it has never been
analysed. There can be no doubt, how
ever, that the spring is certain and in
slant death to every living thing that APP
proaches it. San Francisco Chronicle.
THE MISGUIDED CLOCK.