The record-union., 1892-02-29
One of the strange Corners of On
Country.


One of the strange Corners of Our
Country.
The great American Desert was almost
better known generation ago than IL Is
to-day. Then thousands Oh the hardy
Argonauts on their way to California had
traversed that fearful waste on foot with
their dawdling oXteams, and hundreds
of them left their bones to bleach in that
thirsty land. The survivors of those
deadly journeys had very vivid idea OF
what that desert was; but now that we
can roll across it in less than day in
Pullman palace cars, its real-and still
exisling-hofrors are largely forgotten !
have walked its hideouS length alone and
wounded, aud realize something more OF
it from that than a great many railroad
Journeys across 1t have told me. Now
every transcontiuental railroad crosses
the great desert which stretches up and
down the continent, west OF the Rocky
Mountains, for nearly two thousand
miles, The northern routes cut its least
terri BILE parts; but the two railroads
which traverse its southern half-the At
lantic and Pacific Railroad and the South-
ern Pacific-pierce some OF its grlmmest
receSSeS.
The first scientific exploration of this
region was Lieutenant Wheeler's United
States survey about 1850; and he was first
to give scientific assurance that we had
here desert as absolute as the Sahara.
If its parched sands could speak their
record, what story they might tell of
sutlerings and death; of slow plodding
caravans, whose patient oxen lifted their
feet ceaselessly from the bliStering gravel;
OF drawn human faces that peered at
some lying image of placid lake, and
toiled frantically on to sink at last, hope
less 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 mary
have yielded to the long sleep in that
inhospitable land. Not year passes,
even now, without record Of many dying
upon that desert, and of many more who
wander back, in a delirium thirst. Even
people at the railroad station sometimes
rove off, lured by the strange fascination
OF the desert, and never come back; and
of the adventurous miners who seek to
probe. the golden secrets OF those barren
and strange hued ranges, there are count
less 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 mount-
aims become somewhat less numerous,
and the sandy wastes more prominent.
There are many extinct volcanoes upon
it, and hundreds OF square miles of black,
bristling lava flows. a large part Of it is
sparsely clothed with the hardy grease
wood; but III places not q plant of any
sort breaks the surface, as far as the eye
can reach. The summer heat is unbear-
able, often reaching 1862 in the shade
aud piece of metal which has been in
the sun can no more be handled than can
a red hot stove. Even in winter the
mid day heat is insutierable, while at
night ice Frequently forms on the water
tanks. The daily range of temperature
there is said to be the greatest ever re-
corded anywhere; aud change of S0o in
a few hours is not rare.-CharleS L. LuIn-
mis- in st. Nicholas,