The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-12
FANrALUs OF THE DESERT.
The Ever-Present- Mirage That In
oreases the Suffering of the Thirsty.

]
.oreases the Suffering of the Thirsty.
From the San Francisco Examiner
San Diego, July 22.-The Willard party,
which left Campo in April for afprospect-
| ing trip on the desert of Cocopah and
who were. afterward reported as hay
| ing persisted, succeeded after terrible suf-
| fering and hardship in making their way
| to the Lost Horse mine, in the Pinon dis
| trict. Charles f. Willard arrived in this
! city yesterday from the desert north of
| IndiO. He was one OF the party The
| other members of the party were Nathan
! Willard, the Charles; Diamond George
! SlmondS, and the West Indian, Leon Eu-
| gene. Young Willard told a reporter
! graphic tale of his experience in the
| desert
! AT Mesquite Lake we found the de-
| serted cabin of Johnson, the cattleman
! who has cattle there in the season. A
light spring wagon was standing there.
| We took it, leaving our heavy wagon
| with note explaining the situation. We
! left also our seine, fodder and a large
quantity of food. The next day we
struck out for the railroad, going due
north. We expected to find water at
short intervals, and took only half-bar-
rel with us
"There it was that l first noted the
1 and even mountains. We would note
| large range of hills at some point on the
| horizon and look the next day to see
where it was. Often it would be in an
entirely different direction. The sand is
continually shifting, often so silently and
| lightly as to be unseen, but surely Just
| the same. This, | have no doubt, is one
reason why men get lost. Another is the
| mirage, which is continually deceiving a
person In every direction, whether on
! level or rolling ground, we saw little cool
lakes fringed with palms. Sometimes we
saw solid rock hills, with trees and lakes
at their feet. Invariably there was moth
ing to cause the illusion except, possibly,
the low bushes that were seemingly mag
nihed by the rays of heat and light.
AT noon on the day after we left the
lake our water was exhausted. Then for
two days and half we went thirsty [
was surprised to see that my father, an
old man, stood the torture better than T.
Diamond George, too, seemed not to suf-
fer. The negro and 7, though were
greatly affected. will describe as closely
as I'can how felt, @.-
'tAfter.the ordinary sensations of thirst
my tongue began to swell, and the most
intolerable feeling came over me of pain
wherever anything touched me. If my
clothes happened to rub me- l was seized
with an irresistible desire to throw them
off TO the last stitch. My father eau
-tioned me to keep my senses, aHdI argued
with myself continually, but neVerthe-
less, l would find myself tearing nav
clothes off. The most intense mental an
guish, of course, accompanied the feelings
of physical discomfort. | dreamed of
water thought of water, talked of water
and always before me saw the cool little
lakes just few yards OF the road or Just
ahead. My tongue swelled, filling nv
mouth, and feeling like dry sponge. /
could not talk, but if could, would have
cursed those fresh little lakes that
Knocked me. The thought of eating filled
me with sudden disgust and ugly temper
In spite of that Itried TO force myself to
eat something in order to allay the suffer
ing, but no sooner had touched food to
my dry tongue than ! flung it away invol-
unfairly. 70 my tongue food was as
tasteless as sawdust.
In the evening of the third day, when
| felt myself going mad with objects TAX
ing on the most grOtesque shapes and the
noise of the wagon sounding as if miles
away, we saw the smoke of a passenger
train rushing across the desert. Without
a word father and Diamond George began
piling food, barrel traps, and everything
out into the sand. The sand was heavy,
but they urged the horses through, and
we reached the railroad at Flowing
Wells. Never shall l forget the first
drink of water. / was sick for two DAYS,
out of my head, they said.
Zone of the horses was sick, and we
had to wait at Flowing Wells nine DAYS.
The trains whizzed by, never stopping.
and our grub began TO give out. We had
started from Mesquite lake with 1850
pounds of tour. Al Flowing Wells we
| began to divide it with our poor horses.
At night the horses gnawed the telegraph
poles clean through, and the bottom of
the wagon where they had licked up the
floor. AS soon as possible we started for
lndio, pushing the wagon, the horses be-
ing too weak TO haul it.
AT Walters station we were overtaken
by sand storm We tied a sheet to the
section house and crawled under The
next morning we were under two feet of
sand and had 10 burroW out. The horess
were wading around as if in a snow drift.
After great trioulatiOn we reached lndio,
and got food and water and good rest.
u noticed many peculiar phenomena
in that region, among which were the
electric storms. l have seen flash after
fash Of lightning, followed by peals of
thunder, although the sky would be per-
fectly cloudless. l cannot account for il
unless the intense heat and dryuess gen
Grated electricity L think the weather
there this season Is unusually hot. The
Fourth Of July was especially so. IL was
almost impossible, 70 exist IN the sun, and
we crawled into the shade of our shallow
prospect holes, where we sweltered the
entire day Along toward night we were
hustled out of there, however. by a vio-
lent earthquake. which, il seemed, would
topple the mountains over on us"
Edwin Booths grave AZ CAMBRIDGE il I'm.