The herald., 1895-05-26
BLAZING SUN AND THIRST
A Vivid Description Of the Great Salt
Valley Five Hundred Feet Below
the Level of the Sea and
Deadly Hot

Many volumes have been written on
that peculiar piece of earth, Death valley,
where so many fellow travellers went to
never return, leaving their bleaching
bones to mark the spot where they sue
cumbed to the oppressive heat, poisonous
water and other elements destructive to
life, and yet in reality little is known of
the queer place. Colonel I. W. Brooks OF
Pomona and Mr.. D. NJ. Johnson Of New
York have just returned from this awful
valley, which is the lowest spot OF earth
ON the American continent. where they
went on mining expedition, travelling
the entire length OF the valley, and
through parts of Nye ana Lincoln coun-
ties. Nevada. The colonel is a great trav-
eler and old-tme mining man, and has
made many such trips, but to Mr.. john
son it was new feature OF life, and one
of hazard and torture, traversing the dead
mans trail. crossing the expansive sand
deserts. crystallized salt beds. 500 feet be-
low the ocean. and often without water.
AS Colonel Brooks remarks, it IS truly
reg1etful that this phenomenal country
cannot be seen by the thousands of peo-
pie who read of its indescribable wonders.
He says that when the descriptive pow
ers OF our most able writer's have been
exhausted IN an effort to convey to the
public correct impression of the prclp-
itous depths, grandeur of its confines.
com binations OF all known minerals, and
adding to this the solemnity of awe, of
torture, OF death to the many travellers,
the readers most grasping imagination is
still vague and as far short OF the reality
as is the possibility of an OK drinking
the waters OF the San Francisco bay.
An indefinite idea of the exceeding
grandeur of the salt precipice. miles in
length, that is situated at the head OF
Death valley, as the sun shines upon it
each day of the 365 OF the year, may be
Imagination to the subhmity of Niagara
falls, when its dimensions have been null
tiplied by one hundred, and the water is
converted into transparent icicles with
the rejecting brilliancy of ten. thous sand
chandeliers, and thus by some unnatural
expanse of the Imagination an appre-
ciative sense of the stubborn facts is
had of the deep brown or oxide of iron
color, the crstallzing salt extending over
fifty miles in the lowest depth of Death
valley.
There is nothing, not anything, that
has name or shape. more abrupt,
uneven, or topsy- turvey, than is this
lass of salt as spewed from the unknown
depths of the earth. The projecting
points. one above another. are generally
oblong. and of all dimensions from one
inch to five feet, and as the inner press
ure of the unknown forces have thrust
and crowded the millions of var!ed forms
and sizes of fragments promiscuously to
the surface. it presents distressing con-
fusion. The salt is of the ordinary hard
ness of a stone. 1t is here that wagon
road is built without the use of plow.
pick, shovel or ak, but at great expense
the high parts are hammered down, and
make it possible for the traveller to pass.
Messrs. Brooks and Johnson credit
I'M, coIx with hotD fOrf
nate party that ever visited Death Valley,
excepting the many who pershed in this
forbidden spot. Their trip, as Colonel
Brooks expresses it, was one OF hellish
disappon tments, hazard of life, hard
ships. and once narrow escape from
drowning in the Big Tejunga. The wind
blow longer and harder than he ever knew
it before, at times making it necessary to
cable the wagons and ballast the blankets
to prevent being blown out of existence.
The toughest part of their journey was
the long drives of fifty to sixty miles be-
tween water stations. over the terrific sand
beds, mountains and unbroken roadways.
At times their water supply was COM
pletely exhausted, mules given out, and
they compelled on one occasion to aban-
don the wagon and lead the mules dis
tance of twelve miles to water.
Colonel Brooks says of his inexper-
fenced New York companion. as n desert
Traveller, tndJ lie is competition Ol tHe
best material the blazing sun OF the des
ert ever shown upon. walking twenty
miles a day through the lntnese heat. ris-
ing at in the morning and travelling till
~ the following night.
The two gentlemen went to Death val
ley expressly to secure a most valuable
quartz mine, said to have value of $4,000
Ter ton, and on arriving upon the ground
at the extreme head of Death valley
found. to use Colonel Brooks language
that it was not wo. tn 2-cent postage
stamp.