The morning news., 1892-03-28
raE BIRTH OF A VOLCANO.
strange Things Seen at Distance by
Mining Prospectors il Colorado.
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ENrADR &c l1lAk5 O6C1 at q distance DIV
Mining Prospectors io Colorado.
From the san FfGncisco Examiner.
Sax DIEGO, March ST the reports are
true which are brought here By the mining
rrospectors Just returned from the Colorado
5asert and New River basin country, the
rssent ea-thqu AXE shocks which so much
.larmed the people Of this region can be
accounted for. 10 has all the time been be-
Iiayei that the severest shocks were expert
encsd in the country southeast from this
city. and the reports which have come in
almost daily from the mo o1ntains confirm
this supposition.
The prospectors who came in to-day tell
weird tale OF blazing volcano. clouds of
mist and ashes seen far off TO the south. pre-
sumably IN the mysterious Cocopah country.
They claim to have been camped on the
edge OF the desert. just beyond the La9una
mountains on a high plateau, from which
they had a range OF view east and south Of
seventy five miles. The earthquake, which
occurred there at the same time that is was
felt here. was so severe that they were
greatly alarmed, and expected that the
earth would open. They looked of toward
che Cocopah country for signs Of volcano.
whose existence they suspected, but could
see nothing. The next day the tremors were
frequent and severe and toward night they
saw murky cloud accommodating over what
as near as they could guess, were the Coco
nah mountains. A few hours after dark
DANES we're plainly seen shooting upward.
and before midnight the heavens were
brightly Illuminated.
"As near as we could judge" said men,
Der of the party, "the fire was about forty
miles away, in a southeasterly direction.
below the line and near the Colorado river
where the most mysterious part of the
Cocopah mountains are, aud where mud
volcanoes have been reported to exist II
we had sufficient provisions we would have
attempted trip down that way, but il is
dangerous TO undertake such O Journey
without ample supplies, though az this sea-
son there is plenty OF water. The second
day after the first severe shock smoke still
hung over the country to the southeast, but
the flames had subsided."
Coming back through the mountains the
prospectors noticed evidences Of the earth
quake in dislodged rocks which had rolled
down from the mountain sides.
In reference TO the latter effects of the
earth convulsions Archibald Campbell. who
was au eyewitness Co them. writes from
Campo, on the edge of the Colorado desert,
as follows
Everything near this locality shook, and
a dull, continuous roar like the ocean surf.
but louder and more regular, was heard,
aud both mouutains-the one northeast and
the other southeast from here-sent part of
their rocky tops down. Those mountains
are over 1000 feet high. The rocks sent
down must have weighed hundreds of tons.
One mountain TO the southwest, about a
mile of, sent half its peaked top down half
way till 1t met another peak 30 stop it.
What it sent down made fiat face down
its side over 1.500 feet long. and a quarter
Of mile wide. 1t must have weighed
thousands OF tons, as some OF the rocks
were bigger than a block of street.