Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-01-04
Close to suh,crrancan Ilire.

Death Valley, which was delivered II
Metropolitan Temple on Friday, add
ed something to our knowledge of one
of the most curious spots in the State.
1t was a year or two after the discov-
cry of geld that its existence was made
known by the flighlful destruction OF
an immigrant party by thirst within
! its limits.
The immigrants were coming III
through Nyc county, Ney. they cross
ed pass in the Paranint Mountains
and struck into the valley, where their
skeletons lie to this day Some ten
years afterward the United States
Boundary Commission surveyed the
valley and pronounced it TO be the bed
of q former lake. which had been
drained in one of the last volcanic con-
vulsons on this side of the mountains.
Since then it has been visited by occa-
sional explorers and gatherers OF bo-
raX but as It contains no water, as the
air is impregnated with mephiiic gas
eS. and rs the thermometer sometimes
registers as much as lI00 in the shade
in summer, visitors have been few and
far between.
Yet it is IN interesting spot. Ii is
part Of the belated world, TO which the
Great Salt Lake, the subterrauean river
of Mojave and the Colorado Desert be-
long, and Of which the geysers Of Scno-
ma are an oHshoot As Greenland is a
relic of the last glacial age, so this dis
tressed region is a surviving relic OF the
latest igneous age f; an era when moth
ing was finally settled, and fire and
water were contending for supremacy
over the soil. Similar regions exist in
southern Calabra and in the vicinity Of
the Dead Sea in Palestine the volcanic
force has so far lost It's primitive energy
that earthquakes arc light. aMd there
are no el!gaftjoHHse el!! gaft oHHserdesir.tss RS tahe voleanic
gases c.onlh,nding pror ';, s4cn IL quanal, i,.,
to life ;' and lay tiy,tnh norm II springs are pol
Iuted with salt, stcn, n1,,'hur, f and poisonous
ingredients. Ia the California Solfatara
excessive heat is added 10 the other
horrors of the place The centre of the
valley is hotter than SEMINAR, and the
only animal life is few specimens Of
tropical reptiles.
Mr.. Momson is reported 10 have said
that the bottom Of the valley is the
lowest depression on the earth's sur
face. This is not strictly correct. The
lowest levels obtained in Death Valley
are about 1870 feet below the sea,
whereas the surface Ct the Dead Sea in
Palestine is / 300 feet below. But the
hole which goes by the name of Death
Valley is pretty deep. The crust Of
the earth throughout the valleys of
San Bcrnardino and Inyo counties mu
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 q
slight resistance to seismic forces. a
few miles distant from Death Valley
there is region which may be survey
ed 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 away is the range of
granite mountains, among which Mt.
Whitney rears its head through The
clouds solid masses Of primcval rock which
must have Worn the shape in which We see
them now when the plain at their feet was a
scething raging caldron IN which lire and
water contend for the mastery.
To see such nlarvcls ofnatnrc people cross
oceans. spend fortunes aud carly their lives
in their hands. NeithcrlNauna Loa nor lIcc-
In offers such wonders to the hcholdcr as
Death Valley aud the COLORADO Desert. In
january aud February the heat in tie valley
is bearahlc-not over 9O2 in the shade. EX-
curs;on parties might be fitted ont with sup
plies of food and water. and. in a tew days
the visitors might see enough 10 realize 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 then
awful chasms and their hidcous inhabitants
would be a thing not easily soygotten.-N.u'
Fiunci>co C0N.