The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-06
THE DESERT OF CocoPAH.
-Four Years Experiences OF Two Gold
Miners in the California Inferno.

San Diego, April 1S.-God may have
wrought place more terrible than the
Cocopah desert Of Lower California, but
If so it is unmarked by the trail of mortal.
a desert from which Dante might have
added 10 the horrors of his Inferno" a
level of gray death, feared of man and
forgotten of its creator; a region sep
arated from the seething ncaldrons below
by thin crust of sand, through which
the fumes and heat from the ebb and flow
OF fire seem plainly apparent.
As starting point for a desert trip find
campo, village in Southern California,
near the Mexican boundary, and about
sixty miles back of the coast line. Twenty
miles south of that, as an initial point,
run line 100 miles southeast until it
touches the gulf coast line. Between that
line and the gulf lies the famous Cocopah
desert with its range of mountains A
territory about 100 miles square, but as
little known as the interior of Africa. An
innocent looking spot on the map, but on
the surface of what it represents lie
bleaching the bones of many men, both
white and red. You will note that il is
not marked with the zigZag lines which
generally denote water courses, nor is it
marked with the shaded lines represent
ing mountains Why Simply because as
yet there has been found no corps of en-
tempt its survey. There are maps of the
region, but they are scared on the brains
of less than half a dozen hardy
prOSpectors.
Standing on the line you have drawn
and looking eastward you may see the
outlines of a low range of mountains, dis
tant, with water forty, possibly sixty
miles. Without water eternity inter
venes between you and that range of hills
qicfr, n
mering heat. That stretch of forty or
sixty miles is the worst part of the Coco
pah desert. A wide stretch of arid, ster
lie, sandy plain, lying far below the level
of the sea and absolutely devoid of vegeta-
tiOn and life in any form. Too hot and
dry for even the lizard and horned toad
the heat radiates from the sand and rocks
with scorching effect, blistering the skin
Forty or sixty miles is not great dis
lance, you say, and ought to be covered in
less than twenty-four hours. Other good
men have thought the same thing and
tried it, Their bones scattered about on
the sand afford proof of their error. Every
yeor for nearly half a century that desert
has claimed it's victims, singly and in
groups. Yearly since the argonauts drifted
south from the gold fields in the center Of
California men have started for the Coco
paha and never returned.
Once having reached the mountains,
you are not saved from death by thirst.
There are but two or three places in all
that range on the west side where water
fit to drink may be found. There are
strange phenomena in that region, how
ever, which are worthy of a scientific ex-
plOratiOn. At the foot of the mountains,
on the west side, is a lake known as the
Laguna Solado. 1t is probably s miles in
length and from l to 2 miles in width,
lying parallel with the range. The water
is very salt and has tides like the oceans.
Its shores are fringed with a marine veg
citation, and it is evident that the lake is
fed from the Gulf of California, but the
CULTS more than sixty miles away and a
range of mountains intervenes.
What lures men to that locality and
tempts them to cross those burning sands?
Gold
OF the hundreds that have tried to
reach these mountains. that Ell Dorado of
muchO orc, there are but pitiful few
that have ever returned. Among the lat
ter are j. M. Brown and Jacob Crawford,
two old-time miners. Four years ago
they started for the COcopah country.
Two years later, gaunt, thin and hollow
eyed, they drifted into the little Mexican
town of EnSenada, some sixty miles down
the coast. Their belts were full of gold
however, and after resting they refitted
and disappeared. From that time nothing
was heard of them until last Monday,
when they arrived in this city.
When they started for the desert, in
addition 10 the usual supply of provisions
and necessary prospecting tools, they have
made four Canteens of zinc, each of six
gallons capacity, and so constructed as to
fit the backs of their burros. On the back
of each burro was also a 5-gallon keg
Their way led them south from Campo to
| TaiO, some thirty miles south of the
Mexican line. From there they went
down the Canyon de la Palmas and nine
miles brought them to the edge of the
desert. In this canyon they report having
found many date palms, probably me
mento of the mission fathers.
There is generally a good supply of
water in the canyon, and there the two
men camped for several days while rest
ing their mules, and, with their field
glasses, fixing on some objective point in
the distant mountains by which to shape
their course They finally decided to
steer straight for what appeared a low
pass in the Cocopah range and one that
could not be mistaken. One night the
canteens and kegs were filled at the spring
20 miles up the canyon, and the next
morning they started on their journey
through that veritable valley of death.
Their course was SOuth-sOutheast by
the compass toward the low pass, and
they diverged neither to the right nor the
left. They had hoped to make the pass
by travelling constantly, in twenty. four
hours, but here their experience failed
them. The heat was worse than that of
the Sahara, and the dryness of the atmos-
phere something of which they had not
dreamed They soon found that they
could not engage in conversation without
their Threats and tongues becoming in
famed, and they went along in silence.
The hot air seemed to shrivel their very
lungs. Their canteens were constantly
drawn upon, and by time the mountains
were reached those 1872 quarts of water
had disappeared, though it had been used
sparingly. Suddenly the old burro stun
bling along in front half paused threw up
his head, the long ears went forward, and
his nOstrils worked cOnvulsively The
pause was but for an instant. Then he
went forward at pace that hurried his
more heavily packed companions to main
tain.
He had scented water. The first visi-
BILE sign to the men was a spot of damp
sand underline edge of a bowlder in the
bottom of the canyon. A short distance
further up a little stream trickled over
the rocks and not far above was a spring.
The supply of water disappeared, how
ever, some months afterward during an
earthquake. The nearest water was
found three leagues, nearly due north, the
same earthquake having opened another