The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-07-04


In crossing that stretch of desert.
travel as light as possible, and if your
packs contain a superfluity OF anything
let it be water. Food you may travel
without for two, three or possibly four
days, but water you must have con-
stantly. Do little or no talking; keep
the mouth closed, breathing only
through the nosJrils, else the heat will
parch your throat and fairly shrivel
your lungs. Drink but a little
the tongue and throat moist. You per-
spire little, If at all; the heat simply
evapOrates all moisture in your body,
and after being on the desert few
hours your salivary glands almost cease
operation, and your hair crackleS when
passing your fingers through it.
Within the past two years, to my per-
sonal knowledge there have been ten
deaths from thirst on that strip Of des-
ert, three rescues just in the nick of
time, the victims being found gasping
on the sand. and two men at different
times found running about the plain
naked and insane, one of whom had to be
lassOed and tied on a horse by his res
cuers. The first of the victims, with
whom l had a personal acquaintance,
was the Breedlove-Fish party Of three
men, whose bodies were found within
less than two miles of the water they
had struggled so hard to reach. Their
mules were found at the water hole,
one dead from drinking. The men had
been dead several weeks when found,
but the bodies were in a good state of
preservation. Two weeks ago the bod
les of four prospectors were found, al
most in the same locality, by a search
party that had gone out Immediately
on the arrival of the party's mules in
a furnishing condition. In the interval
between these two finds there have been
discovered at different times the bodies
of three individual names
unknown; buried where found" Two,
as nearly as could be judged from the
shrunkcn features, were Germans, the
other presumably an American. The
insane men recovered after a few days
nursing but not all the wealth of the
Incas could tempt them to set foot on
that desert again.
The many rumOrs Of the immensely
rich gold fields in the COcopah noun
tains have been proven false, and why
it is that men will persist in encounter
ing hardships and facing the white
Horseman" at every step is uneXplain-
able. unless the element of danger is in
itself an attraction and the inaccessible
ity of the locality gilds the discouraging
truth with a yellow luster. There is
gold in the mountains, both in quartz
and placers, but there is not sufficient
water in the entire range to supply the
domestic necessities Of an average camp,
to say nothing of a stamp mill. There
Is dDSOluIeIN no IlIlDeT. scarcely enough
brushwood for camp fires. and shipping
the ore is out of the question. Fabulous
ly rich must be the ore that will pay for
sacking and packing on burros 100 miles
10 the nearest railroad station.
Experiences of Two PrOspectors.
Among the few who have ever re-
turned from that FL Dorado Of "mucho
oro' are j. NJ. Brown and ]. S. Craw-
ford, two old-time prospectors. After an
absence of nearly a year they arrived
gaunt, thin and hOllOw-eyed, at the little
Mexican town Of Ensenada, some sixty
miles down the coast. and although their
belts We're fun of gold. their experience
was such as to satisfy any curiosity
they might have had regarding the gold
fields of the CocOpah mountains. When
they started for the desert, in addition
to the usual supply of prospecting tools,
provisions, etc, they had four zinc can
teens each OF six gallons capacity. so
constructed as to fit the backs of the
burros. On the back of each burro was
also a five-gallon keg. Their way led
from Campo thirty miles south to Tajo
and from there down the Canyada de las
Palmas to the spring two miles from the
edge Of the desert. With a field glass
they located a deep notch Gel Canyada
de las Mujeres) in the distant noun
tains This notch marked the location
of the next water hole, and they decided
to keep ii always straight ahead the
direction being slightly south of east.
One night the canteens and kegs were
filled at the spring, and early the next
morning they started to cross that valley
Of death Both men had had experience
in the gold fields OF Africa and the bush
of Australia. They were not deceived
by the seeming nearnesS of the noun
tains. but hoped to reach the canyon, 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 at
mOsphere something of which they had
not dreamed. They had not gone far
until they found 1t impossible to travel
under that blazing sun, and were obliged
TO camp until night. The lie quarts Of
water were constantly drawn upon and
were exhausted long before the noun
tains were reached. They found the 10
cation of the spring in the Canyada de
las Mujares, but no water-Only bit Of
moist sand-the flow of water having
been stopped by an earthquake. In their
extremity they gave their old barro his
head, and he eventually found water in
one Of the numerous small canyons.
There they Camped and after several
days prospecting found that it was the
only water within miles. They panned
every gulch in the locality and found
"'colOr" everywhere, but the most prom
Using was about four miles from the
spring. There they put up their dry
washer and began operations. The ever
present heat was too intense to permit
of any exertion, except early in the morn
ing or late in the afternoon. but they
managed to get an ounce of gold per day.
The nights were but little cooler than the
days, and after the men had spent the
usual two hours in the placers in the
evening they would stretch out naked
on the sand and endeaVOr to pass the
night in sleep. Mosquitoes and other in
sects did not trouble them, he heat being
too great seemingly for them to exist.
Phenomena of the Region.
There are strange phenomena in that
region, however, that are worthy of
scientific investigation. At the foot of
the mountains on the west is a lake
known as the Laguna Salado. 1t is prob
ably eight miles in length and from one
to two miles in width. lying parallel with
the range. The water is very salt and
has tides like the ocean. It's shores are
fringed with a marine vegeta ton and it
is evident that the lake is fed from the
Gulf of California, but the gulf is more
than sixty miles away and a range Of
mountains intervenes. On the east, be-
tween the mountains and the gulf, is
strip of level plain, in which are the
mud volcanoes. hundreds of them. from
which bubbles up a liquid bluish-col-
ored mud, some blubbering like huge
pots of mush, level with the surface,
others spouting up several feet. The
mud drying in the sun as it falls, is
baked in the form of cones from three
to six feet in hight. The crust of the
earth Quivers and trembles almost con-
stantly In the locality of these volcanoes