The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-05-21
The Great American Desert.


Charles F LHmmis, in St Nicholas
The Great American Desert was almost
hotter known a generation ago than It Is to-
Iay. Then thousands of the hardy Argo-
nants on their way to California had tray-
ars..d that fearful waste on foot with their
,I,u5I;po ORLEANS. and hundreds OF them
IL, tbeir homes to bleach in that thirsty
and The survivors of those deadly jour
news had very vivid idea Of what that
desert was: but now that We can roll across
!, in les than day in Pullman palace
cars H. real-and still existing-horrors
are largely forgotten. l have walked It's
b;decus length alone aud wounded, and
realize something moro of 1t from that than
great many railroad journeys across 1t
have told me. Now every trabseonilnentai
railroad crosses the great desert which
stretches up aud down the continent, west
of the Rocky Mountains, tor nearly Two
,boDsand miles. The northern routes cut
It's least terrible parts; but the two railroads
,rbi.b traverse its southern half-the At
lantic and Pacific Railroad and the South
ern Pacifc-pierce some Of It's grlmmest
recesses.
The first scientific exploration Of this
r,.oion Was Lieutenant Wheelers | nIted
states survey about 1850; and he was trst
IN rive scientific assurance that We had
here a desert as absolute as the Sahara IL
rs marched sands could speak their record,
what a story they might tell Of sufferlnss
and death: of -ploddiDg caravans, whose
pa,ieut oxen lifted their feet ceaseleSsly
from the blistering gravel; Of drawn human
faces that peered at some lying image oil
placid lake. and toiled franticllly on to sink
at last. hopeless and strengthless, in the hot
dust which the mirage had painted with
the hues and the very waves Of water.
No one will ever know how many have
Welded to the long sleep in that inhospisa-
Bile land. Not a year passes, even now
without record of many dying upon that
desert. and of many more who wander back,
in a delirium of thirst Even people at the
railroad station sometimes rove on, lured
by the strange fascination Of the desert,
ard never come back; and OF the adyen-
furious miners who seek to probe the golden
secrets of those barren and strsDge-hued
ranges. there are countless victims.
A desert Is not necessarily an endless,
level waste of burning sand. The Great
American Desert is full of strange, burnt,
ragged mountain ranges, with deceptive,
sloping broad valleys between-though as
We near Its southern end the mountains be-
come somewhat less numerous, and the
sandy waste more prominent. There are
MANY extinct volcanoes upon it, and hun
dreds of square miles Of black, bristling lava
flows. A large part oft is sparsely clothed
with the hardy greasewOOd; but in places
not plant of any sort breaks the surface,
as far as the eye can reach. The summer
heat is unbearable. often reaching 1856 IN
the shade; and piece of metal which has
been in the sun can no more be handled
than can a red-hot stove. Even in winter
the midday heat Is insufferable, while at
night ice frequently forms on the water
tanks. The daily range Of temperature
there is said to be the greatest ever record
ed anywhere; and change Of so in afew
hours Is not rare.