The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-02-10

Are the Feet Of Those Who Walk on
the Sand Of Death Valley.

Death Valley, which was delivered at
Metropolitan Temple on Friday,
added something TO our knowledge Of
one Of the most curious spots in the
State. 1t was a year or two after the
discovery of gold that its existence
was made known by the frightful de-
struction OF an immigrant party by
thirst within its limits.
The immigrants were coming in
through Nye County, New. they
crossed a pass in the Paramint Noun
tains and struck into the valley,
where their skeletons lie to this day.
Some ten years afterward the United
States Boundary Commission sur
veyed the valley and pronounced it
to be the bed of a former lake, which
had been drained in one of the last
volcanic commissions on this side Of
the mountains. Since then il has been
visited by occasional explorers and
gatherers of borax; but as it contains
no water, as the air is inpregnated
with mephitic gases, and as the Their
mometer sometimes registers as much
as 40 degrees i'm the shade in sum-
mer, visitors have been few and far
between.
Yet it is an interesting spot. 1t is
part Of the belated world, 90 which
the great Salt Lake. the subterranean
river Of Mojave and the Colorado
Desert belong, and of whicl, the gey-
sers of Sonoma are an offshoot. As
Greenland is q relic OF the last glacial
age, so this distressed region is a
surviving relic of the latest igneous
age; an era when nothing was finally
settled, and fire and water were con-
tending for supremacy over the soil.
Similar regions exist in southern Cal
abria and in the vicinity Of the Dead
Sea in Palestine; the volcanic force
has so far lost its primitive energy
that earthquakes are light, and there
are no eruptions; but the volcanic
gases continue to escape in such
quantity that travel is attended with
danger to life, and the water springs
are polluted with salt, sulphur and
poisonous ingredients. In the Cali
fornia Solfatara excessive heat is
added to the other horrors of the
place. The center of the valley is
hotter than SEMINAR, and the only
animal life is a few specimens Of
tropical reptiles.
Mr.. Momson is reported to have
said that the bottom of the valley is
the lowest depression on the earth's
surface. This is not strictly correct.
The lowest levels obtained in Death
Valley are about 430 feet below the
sea, whereas the surface Of the Dead
Sea in Palestine is 200 feet below.
But the hole which goes by the name
Of Death Valley is pretty deep. The
crust of the earth throughout the val
leys Of San Bernardino and Inyo
counties must be very thin. The
travellers feet are separated from the
internal body Of everlasting fire by a
slim sheet Of earth and rock, which
would offer but a slight resistance
to seismic force. A few miles distant
from Death Valley there is a region
which may be surveyed by the eye,
and which contains a thousand active
volcanoes-small of their kind, to be
sure, baby volcanoes, so to speak, but
still actively engaged in throwing up
mud and water. And not many
miles way is the range of granite
mountains. among which Mount
Whitney rears its head through the
clouds; solid masses Of primeval
rock which must have worn the shape
in which we see them now when the
plain at their feet was n seething,
raging caldron in which fire and
water contended for the mastery.
To see such marvels Of nature peo-
pie cross oceans, spend fortunes and
carry their lives in their hands.
Neither Mauna Loa nor Hecla offers
such wonders to the beholder as
Death Valley and the Colorado Desert.
In January and February the heat
in the valley is bearable-not over
90e in the shade. Excursion parties
might be fitted out with supplies Of
food and water, and, in a few days,
the visitors might see enough to real
ize what the world was like in the
Plutonic age. The contrast between
the pleasant valleys of the rivers,
with their fruit trees bursting into
blossom. and these dreadful deserts,
with their awful chasms and their
hideous inhabitants, would be a thing
not easily forgotten.- San Francisco
r.11