The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-12-26
SOME ODD STORIES.

California Desert-How Wandering
Prospector Died of Thirst Within a
Few Yards of Water.
dCopyright, 1892. by American Press Associa-
toni
Death valley, in southwestern Callfor-
MIA, near the Nevada line, is famed as the
hottest and most sterile place in the United
States. The story of.the band of Mormons
who got lost in this valley and persisted of
thirst is as true as it is thrilling, but there
are other stretches in that desert land quite
as uninviting as Death valley.
have myself Travelled for days within
sight Of water foaming and roaring at the
bottom of some canyon, whose precipitous
banks rose up from 5000 to 1000 feet in
height, and yet men and animals were tor
tured with thirst.
have never seen land drier or more
sterile than the dry mesas or table
mountains that extend to the north from
the Moqui villages to the valley Of the
San Juan in southwestern Colorado.
Embarrassing though this region is,
every hill and defile in it's arid expanse
has been traversed by the gold hunters,
and there is not spring in all that land
that is not known to the prospector.
This is certainly dangerous land for
any man to travel over who is not familiar
with the water supply TO be found in it's
accessible canyon bottoms or it's few half
alkaline springs.
While surveying in this country before
the days of railroads we had with US two
Navajo Indians as guides. The only use
of these men was to lead us to water or to
secure fresh meat-the latter an unusual
occurrence, for the only game was the big
horned Rocky mountain sheep, and they
were by no means abundant
SAW THE FORM OF MAN EXTENDED.
We had been for forty eight hours with
out water, and our horses and mules reeled
under the blistering sun as if they were
drunk, while the youngest of our men had
an aged look, SO drying on the skin were
the siroccolike winds that beat into our
faces day and night
Our guides were disappointed in finding
no water in Coyote springs that morning,
but they cheered us up with the assur-
ance that by the time the sun was setting
over the country Of the great canyons we
should reach the ojo fra, or cold springs.
Along the route traversed there was no
vegetation-not even cactus. The air
was not disturbed by the hum or song of
insect, and the coppery sky looked as if it
must instantly parch the wing of any bird
that attempted to cleave it's heated, fur
nacelike depths.
The setting sun was frightening the
shadows Of men and horses into immense
but attenuated silhouettes, when my at
tention was attracted to the Navajoes, who,
in their eagerness to reach the springs, had
gone on ahead on foot
On nearer approach I saw the shriveled
form of dog lying along the trail, but it
was SO parched as to be as hard as flint,
and there was nothing in or about the
body to Indicate when it had died. It had
been noble creature and must have fol-
lowed it's master into this sterile land.
A hundred yards farther on, and where
the Indians were standing, saw the form
of man extended, his rifle lying by his
side and his belts fitting close to his shriv-
eled form.
1t was the body of tall, fair haired
young man, and from the neatness of the
dress we inferred that he had not been
professional hunter or prospector.
Grasped in the left hand there was PEN
Gil and piece of paper that had been turned
yellow as parchment by the sun.
Hoping to get q clew to the mans iden-
tity, | took the paper from his stlffened In
gers and read as follows:
SIT is now three days since got separated
from my friends, who were prospecting on
the Rio Franchos.
81 have not had food OF water for three
days, and feel that am dying. My poor
dog lies dead near by.
sTf this should fall into the hands Of a
white man, I ask that my body be buried
near where it may be found.
81 am twenty-eight years of age. My
name is Henry G. Rollins, and I am civil
engineer by profession. My parents live in
B."
There was an attempt madet add letters
after the B, but.we could not make them
out.
The saddest feature of this case was the
fact that the poor fellow died within few
yards of the water Of which he was in
search.
We carried out his request by burying
him under the rocks by which he lay, one
of the men forming with the loose stones
rude cross at the head.
subsequently tried, but withouta avail,
to find the friends Of the man who sleeps
by the spring out in the great American
desert.