The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-03-20
QUEER THINGS OUT WEST.
WAY ARIZONA CAME TO HAVE CAM
ELS IN ITS DESERTS.

Near which Men Have PerIShed Of
Thirst.
California Letter in New York Sun.
In the last half century hundreds Of
books and thousands Of columns in news
papers have been published concerning
the wonders OF the Pacific coast. Of the
stupendous freaks OF nature, the unpar-
anelied mineral deposits, the mammoth
/ specimens OF vegetation. the incongrui-
ties Of climatic conditions. and the anom-
allies Of life. But, in the words Of the
/ Queen Of sheba, The half hath never
been told
In Nevada and Arizona occur the most
/ extensive natural stores of salt in the
United States. Not only are there salt
springs. wells. lakes and ponds. with
/ fields Of salt. in the deserts, but ,aere
are also immense deposits of rock salt.
In the early days Of silver mining on
the Comstock lode salt for use in the
amalgamation Of the ores was brought
over the Sierra Nevada by teams. hav-
ing been discovered by migrants TO
California in crossing the plains; but
the owners Of the teams could not be in
dueed to venture out into the wastes and
waterless tracts,
In 1862 camels were brought to the
Comstock mines for use in the deserts,
and a train Of fifteen Of those animals
was employed in packing salt from Sand
Springs This was in a desert Of salt
and alkali. about eighty miles cast of
Virginia city. Wagons, as well as the
| camels. being used in the transportation
of salt from this deposit. the price Of the
article was soon reduced to $50 a ton.
Soon the occupation Of the canals was
. gone; prairie schooners crowded them out
They were sold TO Mexicans, who used
I them in packing wood down the noun
/ tains. Among the rocks the poor brutes
became fpotsore, and by i'll usage were
/ reduced to mere skeletons They We're
then sold to a compassionate Frenchman
who owned a ranch on the Carso river.
/ Their new owner turned the animals out
to roam at Will
The bitter and prickly shrubs Of the
deserts, being akin to those of their ma
tive home. the herd soon increased to
over 30. great and small They were at
last sold to people in Arizona, to be used
for packing ore from the mountains to
mills in the valleys. But camels are too
| slow for Americans.
The Arizona men soon turned the
| whole herd loose to shift for themselves
| in the wilderness. At last accounts a
few Of the camels were wild on the ella
/ river.
The saliniferous lands nearly always
/ occupy the basins of extinct lakes. Ne
vada's ancieat lake system can be traced
from the southern boundary of Oregon,
about the Warren lakes, in an almost
I unbroken line to Death Valley in South
eastern California Southwark, toward
the Colorado basin, in Lincoln county.
| the continuity Of the system has been
broken by the uphePval of chains Of
| rugged hills.
BY such upheavels isolated lakes ap-
pear to have been formed or separated
from what was ages ago one great body
of water. As even the lowest wave lines
are at a considerable hight above the dry
beds of the lake, it is evident that the
/ hnal disappearance of the waters was due
to evaporation.
When the waters disappeared, the min
erals they had in solution were left as
| immense deposits of salt, soda and boz
raX. The Piute Indians have many ira
ditions pointing back to time when
the whole of Western Nevada was COW
cred with water and the present noun
tains were seen as islands
In their language pan" is the word
for water, and though they are called
Piutes by the whites, Pah-Ute is the
real name of the tribe. Pah-Ute means
''Water-Ute," and the name must have
been given to the tribe when their coun-
try was filled with lakes which covered by
the waters of one great lake.
Great quantities Of petrified wood are
seen in many places In some localities
the trunks of whole trees of four feet in
diameter lie stretched along the ground
now solid stone.
Many years ago there was a despera-
do and cattle thief named Sanchez, who
TsgN 10 rlnA faNsHk .nV A
Nevada, and who, when close pressed.
managed to escape, leaving no trace trail
behind him.
When the flush of pursuit had cooled
he always came back to his haunts ran
off horses or committed some other dew
iltry, and was off to his hiding place
before pursuit could be organized to
stop him. Whittier he fed or what be-
came of him was not known until long
afterward.
party of prospectors crossing the
mountains of northern Arizona at last
came to an almost impossible gorge,
and there, hanging against the basaltio
wall, concealed by huge boulder was
q cabin built of pine logs. But, remark
able to relate, the whole building had be-
come solid stone 1t was feet high and
by feet in the interior. Even the
flooring was like adamant, and the side
walls, particularly from within, pre-
scented a glossy, transparent surface.
Cloudbursts, sweeping the soil out of
ravines and cutting through mountain
flats, have often brought to light thick
strata of logs and boughs, or long lines
of stumps of large trees standing as
they grew, the roots and all parts thor
oughly petrihed.
1t is evident that at one time trees and
vegetation must have been abundant in
the great basin region, as it was the
home of animals now found only in the
forests and jungles of tropical countries.
Under a stratum of sandstone about
twenty feet thick at the state prison
quarry at Carson City. in layer of fine
grained stone that appears to have once
been the soft oozy margin of a lake,
are to be seen hundreds of tracks of va
rious animals and birds.
These tracks look as fresh and dis
tinct as those Of domestic animals in
the mud at and about ponds after the
soft material has hardened under the
heat of the sun.
There are tracks of the elephant, rhi-
noceros, horse, deer. lion, tiger, wolf.
hyena, ana many kinds of birds, large
and small. There are also the tracks
of what may have been man of pre-