The Portland daily press., 1895-08-12
A LAND OF VOLCANOES.
Along the Lower Colorado River, in
the Land Of the Cocopahs.


Hundreds of These Burning Mountains
iu the State of California.
California Letter torsNew York Times. J
A few lines in the press dispatches of
the daily newspapers the other day,
relative to the present. season of unusual
turbulence among the little volcanoes
along the Lower Colorado river, in the
land of the Cocopah Indians, was the
nrst lntlmation that thousands of Amer
lean people had that q land of volcanoes
exists within the domain of Uncle Sam.
Indeed, there are comparatively few
Californians who have had an idea that
within the borders of theirEown common
wealth there have been, through countless
ages, hundreds .of ceaselessly active
volcanoes and "fire spitters'' None of
these burning mountains, as the Mexi-
cans and half-breed Indians know them,
is SO large as Vesuvius, to be sure, but
fully as active and more noisy and rest
less A party of notwithstanding
travellers have returned recently from
trip down the Colorado river from old
Yuma to the Gulf oflCalifornia
The exact situation of this region of
volcanoes is about..200 miles southwest of
Yuma, and fourteen miles from where
the Colorado river flows into the Gulf of
california. The Cocopah and Yuma In
dlans call the country Bad Mans Hunt
ing Ground, =" and not redskin of any
OF the tribes in the southwest can ever be
induced to even visit that region All
Indians are Superstitious, and those in
Arizona and northern Mexico believe
| that the land of the volcanoes is the next
door to hell itself. There are hundreds of
legends and stories among the Pimas,
Marlcopahs and Cocopahs about the hor
rlble beings that have, in ages past come
from among the volcanoes, to the injury
| OF the Indians, and of the spirits of dead
and wicked redmen that wander about
down there in the sulpuhrous atmosphere,
| only waiting an opportunity two wreak
vengeance upon some unsuspecting
| savage.
| THE IMPURE AIR.
The air for miles aronnd the valley of
the volcanoes is heavy with foul fumes,
and only persons of strong lungs and
throats can stand the odors, even several
miles away, for more than a few hours.
When one has gone into the midst of the
volcanoes the smells are not only abom-
| Unable, but very dangerous to any animal
/ life, unless there is a strong breeze blow
ing to carry the sulphur-laden air away.
| There are undoubted stories of persons
| who have yentured too far among the vol
1 canoes, where the air was calm and heavy
| with the poison from the bowels of the
earth, and who have died in few
minutes. Several years ago Prof. Smell
dey of Ontario College fitted up an ap-
paratus whereby he could carry rubber
bag full of pure air, while he was ex-
ploring among the liveliest of the volca-
noes In some way his device did not
work when he bad gone only 200 yards
into the valley OF the fire spitters, and
had he not been seen to stagger and fall
| by several companions, who, at the risk
of their own lives, rushed into his rescue,
he would have died in a few minutes.
AS it was, the whole party was i'll for a
week or more from the effects of inhal-
| ing the poison.
| The first sight of the land of volcanoes
is one never to be forgotten. The feeling
as one gazes over an area of thirty miles
under the hot, burning sun of the desert,
dotted everywhere by literally thousands
of hummocks and mounds, and blue
smoke curling mp from countless num-
bers of these and flames and particles of
molten lava from them, is that here, in
deed, is literal inferno on earth. The
mounds, or volcanoes, are of all sizes
from that OF a hogshead up to an emil
nence some $50 and 200 feet high The
majority of them are about Is feet high
and are 80 feet in circumference at the
greatest point. Most of these little volca-
noes are active, and when they are not
splitting forth yapors and lurid flames
are boiling and stewing within, very
much as steam engine about to raise its
safety valve. The noise of several
| thousand volcanoes seething, grtlmbling
and bubbling is not an unusual occurrence
land fills the average visitor in the land of
| them with indesc1ibable sensations
A DANGEROUS JOURNEY.
sBad Mans Hunting Ground,' is
reached only by a boat from Yuma down
the Colorado river The journey can be
made only at q certain season in the
year, and then it is hazardous and re-
quires expert navigation. The danger
lies in the treacherous eddies and rapids
of the Colorado, and then the route is
not Il certain one owing to the unac-
countable freak the little stream has of
suddenly drying up when it is least ex-
pected The best time of year to get into
this country is in May or the latter part
of April, because later in the season it
gets too uncomfortably hot down there.
If the prospective traveller be good boat
man or canoeist he might be perfectly
safe in attempting the trip by the Colora-
do down to the point where it meets the
| incoming stream, which, thus early in
the year, is always dry. His craft he
can safely leave moored to the banks of
the Colorado, for in this country there
are no rowing bands of Indians or preda-
tory boatmen to steal it. There are
probably not fifty human beings in
that region through any year The
journey across the intervening thirty
miles of desert and mountain can be
easily made by following the dry bed of
the little river, which will bring one di-
rectly to the edge of the basin wherein
lies, probably the greatest natural Won
der of this continent. 1t is well, though,
before starting from the Colorado to pro-
vide ones self with gallon or two of
water, for there is absolutely none until
the volcanoes are reached
| The most unusual curiosity in this
| strange, uncanny land by the Colorado
| river is What the Datl1ra1iStc in California