Los Angeles herald., 1892-10-03
ON THE DESERT.
A Southern Pacific Engineer Talks
That Queer Region.

A Southern Pacific Engineer Talks of
That Queer Region.
A reporter of the Santa Barbara Inde.
pendent recently had an interview with
Southern Pacific railroad engineer
concerning his experiences on the Colo
RADIO desert, and tells the result as fol-
lowe:
Our friend, William Rotsler, engineer
on the Southern Pacific, was in town
Saturday after trip to Yuma. BILLY"
as everyone knows him, is man who
keeps bis eyes open as he thunders over
the steel road, and can therefore tell
many an interesting story that has hap
pened in his experience.
Friday, as our readers may remem-
ber, was rather warm day here for the
season, and several of the boys were dis
Guessing the subject az Mr.. Roster en-
tered the Commercial Hotel Office in
the evening.
Boys" said the engineer, "to get or
ders to run up to Santa Barbara, is de-
cided picnic to us who have had expert
ence further south. You don't know
what hot weather is here. I've just come
in from trip to Yuma, Arizona, and lean
just tell you that the ride between Beau
mont and Yuma-170 miles-in the hot
season, is trip you will not soon forget.
Remember that is hot country and
there is no water. Every train that
goes over the road takes along its one or
more water cars. This is absolutely
necessary in more than one sense. You
probably didn't know this fact: Any
traveller can signal any train going
either way on this strip of track and ask
and receive from the water tanks sup
ply of water. This is the rule of the COM
pany, and 1 pity the engineer who
would disobey the rules and not stop
at the signal. / don't mean to say
there is man who would refuse to do
this, even if it wasn't the rule. | can
tell you OF more than one case where the
getting OF water supply from the train
was the preservation of the lives OF
travellers.
Let me tell you something of the heat !:
When was in Indio last, the thermom-
eter stood at 116 in the shade at 5 o'clock
in the afternoon. 1t did not fall much,
if any, below the 100 degree notch dur
ing the night. The air is pure and dry
and the people sleep in the open air.
The great trouble one finds there is
not only the heat but the mosquitoes.
They are very ferocious - regular
cannibele. People now complain OF
a new species that even more fond
of "eating persons than the old
species that we all know so we'll. But
am getting away from the heat. Run
locomotive into India or Yuma and you
can't tell which part of the machine is
the hottest. The journals, driving
l. - ~, M hot.
ter than the other parts of the iron
work. Section hands will drop a crow
bar on the ground in the sun. In five
minutes they can't touch it with the
naked hand.
You would be interested in the In
dians at Yuma during the hot weather,
They will 60 to the Yuma river and
scoop up q big batch of wet mud and
sticky substance. They then will seek
a clump of grease wood trees and take
nap.
Another thing you would find curious
and interesting. This ie the great desert
of pure white sand. 1t is always shift
ing and changing as the wind changes.
I've known of its covering the track to
depth of from seven to ten feet inside of
an hours blow. You will see at Seven
Palms the telegraph poles with the bot
toms gouged out. just as You see the
piles under Mr.. Stearns' house. You
know the piles are eaten away by spe-
cies of sea worm and the teredor, but
there are neither of these animals at
Seven Palms. The sand, blowing against
the poles, is what does the mischief, just
as a sand blast will cut away the hardest
glass.