The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-02-04
Our 0lio.
The Desert Rain Storms.
John r. spears. in the N. Y. sun,

John K. Spears in the n. Y. SUM-
OF all the tales told by the white Arabs
of the Mojavc Desert few will stir the
mind of a hardy tourist as do those of the
rain storms that now and then deluge this
arid region For practical purposes-for
the purpose of agriculture or the anchor
alton of the arid atmosphere-it is rain
less region. At intervals of years general,
or what the weather sharps would call
blanket rain storms, do prevail, and then
the desert becomes thoroughly moistened
and the brown, hard-baked sand disap-
pears under the most luxuriant, fragrant,
charming masses of flowers imaginable.
But in ordinary years nothing of the kind
is seen there. And yet the. tales OF the
downfall of immense masses of water are
to be heard from every old Arab, and the
physical evidences of such downfalls are
to be seen on every hand in journey
across the region. One does not have to
leave the railroads TO see these evidences.
Just east of Mojave Station, in California,
the road runs for miles over mass of
what looks like yellow clay that has baked
and cracked in all directions under the
heat of the sun. There is not pebble in
sight. 1t is cracked sheet of earth, that
looks so much like the bottom of the dried
out ponds to be seen in the East that any
tenderfoot would recognize it as the bottom
of desert dry lake. The wayfarer who
drives ACROSS the desert finds these dry
lakes wherever there is bowl-shaped val
ley between mountain ridges, and some
times on what seem to be level mesas.
That these dry lakes are occasionally
flooded need not be doubted, for the water
marks are visible.
But more impressive than the dry lakes
are the water marks wherever there Is
canon or even a depression leading down
from a mountain. In these canons the
tourist drives or rides along the dry bed Of
a torrent invariably and it is in such places
as these that the guide tells his stories of
desert rain storms The usual season for
these rains is, curiously enough, the dry
season, if one may believe them. While
the sky is clear and flaming hot a black
cloud appears unexpectedly over some
mountain crest, where it sways about and
increases in volume until its bottom
strikes the mountain top, and then, as if
pierced by lancet, it releases such vol
ume of water as would pass belief did not
one see the work done by the floods in
every canon.
In the valley of the Amargosa lives old
Cub Lee, man who for nearly thirty
years has made the desert his home. His
house is one of the shanties formerly used
by the workmen who gathered borax
there. 1t stands under cliffs of clay that
are cut and slashed at frequent intervals
by deep assures running from the river
bed up toward the mountains that rise on
each side of the valley. One day last win
ter he pointed to mark about three feet
up on the perpendicular walls of the fs-
sures on the Funeral Mountain side, and
said:
'The water came down so deep after a
cloud burst up yonder one day last sum-
mer"
The crest of the Funeral mountain di-
vide was thirty miles away. The nearest
peak was not less than ten, while gradu-
ally rising mesa swept back from the i'm
mediate valley of the river for five or six
miles to the foot of the nearest peak. This
storm had released its food on the crests
of mountains from ten to twenty miles
away, the water had flowed down the can
ons between those mountains, had poured
out over the mesa, had filed the gulches
and assures in its route, and had at last
rolled out through the wide splits in the
river hank n solid wave three feet hioh