The Opelousas courier., 1893-05-13
ODD THINGS TN THE WEST,
WONDERFUL NATURAL CURIOsI.
TIES IN ARIZONA AND NEVADA.

wv tAuOtAON,S uOtSfEdslSd1 EOAVcGH
and Prehistoric Remains.
N the State of Nevada and the Ter
rltory of Arizona occur the most
:. extensive natural stores of salt in
6 the United States. Not only are
there salt springs, wells, lakes and ponds,
with fields of salt in the deserts, but
also immense deposits Of rock salt. In
the early days of silver mining on the
Comstock lode salt, for use in the ANAL
gamation of the ores, was brought over
the Sierra Nevada Mountains by teams,
as it had been seen by the emigrants to
Califsrnia in crossing the plains, but the
owners of the teams could not be induced
to venture out into those great wastes
and waterless tracts. In 1862 camels were
brought to the Comstock mines for use
in the deserts, aud a train of fifteen of
those animals was employed in packing
salt from Sand Springs. This was in a
desert of sand and alkali, about eighty
miles east of Virginia City. Wagons
being used in the transportation of salt
from this deposit, as we'll as the camels,
the price of the article was soon reduced
to $50 a ton. Soon the occupation of
the "ships of the desert" was gone;
prairie ~schooners" crowded them to the
rocks. They were sold to Mexicans,
who used them in packing wood down
the mountains. Among the rocks the
poor brutes became footsore, and by Ill
usage were reduced to mere skeletons.
They were then sold to q compassionate
Frenchman who owned a ranch on the
Carson River. Their new owner surned
the animals out to oam at will. Tho
bitter and prickly shrubs CT our deserts
being the same as or akin to those Of
their native deserts, the herd soon In
creased to over shirty, great and small.
They were at last sold to parties in Ari-
IONA to be used in packing ore from tho
mountains to mills in the valleys. The
Arizona men soon turned the whole herd
loose to shift Fes themselves in the will
derness. At last accounts they were
running wild on the ella River, where
they find a congenial home.
Great quantities of petrifed wood are
seen in many places. In some localities
tie trunks of whole trees, three or four
feet in diameter, lie stretched along the
ground. These are now solid stone.
Cloudbursts, sweeping the coil out OF
ravines and cutting through mountain
flats, have often brought to light thick
strata of logs and bougns, or long lines
of stumps of large trees standing as they
grew, the roots and all parts thoroughly
petrifed.
It is evident that at one time trees
and vegetation must have been abundant
in the Great Basin Region, as it was the
home of animals now only found in the
forests and jungles of tropical countries.
Under a stratum of sandstone about
twenty feet thick OF the State prison
quarry, Carson City, in q layer Of fine
grained stone that appears to have once
been the soft, oozy majgin of a lake, are
b to be seen hundreds of tracks of various
kinds. Of animals and birds. These tracks
look as fresh and distinct as those we
frequently see of domestic animals in
the mud at and about ponds after the
soft material has hardened under the
heat of the SUM-. There are tracks of
elephants, rhinoceros, horse, deer, lions,
tigers, wolves, hyenas, Of many kinds OF
birds, large and small. There are also the
tracks Of what is supposed to have been q
man of prehistoric times. The tracks
are such as might have been made by a
big-footed man. The tracks of all the
larger animals lead in one direction and
all were evidently moving toward the
same object, which object must have
been water-a lake OF a spring. AS the
soft mud, all now stone, is seen to havs
been squeezed up or splashed aside by
the feet of some of the heavy beasts the
tracks cannot be far from where lay the
ancient lake or pond, and BY stripping
off the superintendent strata for a short
distance further some wonderful discov-
cries might be made.
The greatest single deposit of salt in
Nevada is that which is sometimes
sailed ssSalt Mountain" and Is y range
Of hills of pure rock salt situated in the
southwestern corner of the State, in Lin.
coin County. This mountain mass Of
ock salt is of unrivaled purity and pos
esses the solidity of marble. It lies on
he Rio Virgin, q tributary of the Colo
ado River, IN the northern portion OF
he Colorado basin. A solid wall OF
,alt is exposed on each side of Cave Hill
Canyon, which is SO hard that It'll nee
,ssary to blast. it down. 1t is worked
ike an open quarry and the salt IS taken
,ut in large blocks, which are SO trans
parent that a newspaper can be reao
through them. From this mountain
ridge of salt might be quarried al
amount Of that article sufficient TO sup
Div the whole United States for ages.
In several places in this region, Lin
coin County, New, and the adjoining
country about Death Valley, CAL, arr
found traces of former occupation b.
some race of civilized people, probably
the Spanish. In the Kingston range @
mountains, on the eastern face of Clark
I Mountain, near its summit, is a perpen'
dicular cliff Of limestone $50 feet il
height and with a smooth surface. Oh
she face of this cliff, at q height of lO
feet from its base are engraved the fol
lowing characters: tx L D." Th
cross and letters are Of mammoth pro
portions, being not less than sixty fec
Ia height. They are cut into the soil
rock to a depth Of two feet and al
plainly to be seen at q great distance.
No one in the country knows how
when or by whom the letters were Gu
The Indians living in theeVicinity hav
no tradition in regard to theihscription
AS the inscription ID Ii Roman letter