Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-11
CLOSE TO suBTERRANEAN FIRE.
Are the Feet of Those Who Walk on
the Burning sand Of Death Valley.

Are the Feet of Those who Walk on
the Burning sand Of Death Valley.
From the San Francisco Call
Mr.. Frederick Momson's lecture on 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 year or two after the
discovery of gold that it's existence was
made known by the frightful destruction of
an immigrant party by thirst within its
limits.
The immigrants were coming in through
Nye county, Nevada; they crossed pass in
the Paramint mountains and struck into
the valley, where their skeletons lie to this
day. Some tensyears afterward the United
States boundary commission surveyed the
valley and pronounced 1t 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 it has been
visited by occasional explorers and gather
ers of borax; but, as 1T contains no water. as
the air is impregnated with mephitic gases,
and as the thermometer sometimes registers
as much as l4O degrees In the shade In sum-
mer, visitors have been few and far be-
tween.
Yet, it is an interesting spot. 1t is part of
the belated world, to which the Great Salt
Lake. the subterranean river Of Mojave and
the Colorado desert belong, ana OF which
the geysers of Sonoma are an offshoot AS
Greenland Is a relic of the last glacial age.
SO this distressed region is a surviving relic
Of the latest igneous age; an era when moth
ing was finally settled, and fire and water
were contending for supremacy over the
SOIL Similar regions exist In southern Gala
bria and in the vicinity Of the Dead Sea In
Palestine; the volcanic force has 80 far lost
Its primitive energy that earthquakes are
light. and there are no eruptions; but the
volcanic gases continue to escape IN sucn
T. AoSl d0Y n
ger to life, and the water springs are pol
luted with salt, sulphur and poisonous In
gradients. In the California Solfatara ex.
cessive heat is added to the other horrors OF
ter 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 de.
strictly correct. The lowest levels obtained
in Death Valley are about 40 feet below the
sea. whereas the surface Of the Dead Sea In
Palestine is 800 feet below. But the hole
pretty deep. The crust of the earth through.
out the valleys of San Bernardino and Inyc
counties must be very thin. The travellers
feet are separated from the internal body OF
everlasting fire by slim sheet of earth and
rock. which would offer but a slight resist
ance to seismic force. A few miles distant
from Death Valley there is a region which
may be surveyed by the eye, and which
contains n tnOuSanO active VOlcauOeS-Sm3l
of their kind. to be sure. baby volcanoes sc
to speak, but still actively engaged In
throwing up mud and water And not many
miles away is the range of granite noun
tains. 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 a seething, raging
caldron in which fire and water contended
for the mastery.
To see such marvels of nature people
cross oceans. spend fortunes and carry theil
lives in their hands. Neither Mauna Los
nor Hecla offers such wonders to the be-
| holder as Death Valley and the Colorado
desert. In January and February the heat
| in the valley is bearable-not over 80 de-
| grees in the shade. Excursion parties might
be fitted out with supplies of food and wa
| ter, and, in a few days, the visitors might
| see enough to realize what the world was
! like In the Plutonic age The contrast be-
| tween the pleasant valleys Of the rivers
| with their fruit trees bursting into blossom
| and these dreadful deserts, with their awfu
chasms and their hideous Inhabitants would
| be a thing not easily forgotten.