Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-11-07
oAzep ON TIE DESERT.

Man Dies Of Thirst within One HuDar.A
and Fifty Yards of a Lake Of Fresh water.
On the burning sands of Occopah des-
erk beside lake that appears to be of
the coolest and the purest Of fresh wa
ter, lie the bones of an American who |
died OF thirst, and around him are five |
or SIX holes of two OF three feet in depth, |
which he dug with his finger nails in a |
frenzy of thirst. His fingers are worn !
of at the ends, and only his whitening |
bones are left to bear witness to the |
tragedy.
Jose Garcia, who makes a living by
peddling from one little camp to anoth. !
er on the desert, has returned from a
trip which began ON Aug. 90. He left
here at that time and engaged guide
at the new placer camp at Los Picaehos,
below the boundary line, to take him to
a mining camp in the Cocopah noun.
tains in the heart of the desert. The
guide was named Quirino Sosilio,
half breed and with them went also
Frank Gotta, q Mexican. They left Los
Picachos in the afternoon, travelled all
night, and by the next morning were
far out ON the desert. By some miscal-
oulation they were without water, and
though not lost they were bewildered as
to the nearest way to well and spent
the next two days in travelling without
water, becoming almost insane from
thirst On the evening of the third day
they found water. They were then on
the northeast side of Great Salt lake, or
Laguna Salada, that lies between the
Cooopah mountains on the east and the
Painted mountains ON the west The
lake is about six miles wide and 90 or
| 80 in length, varying in size according
to the season, indicating that it is fed
by the gulf of California. 1t is very
shallow and saltier than the waters Of
| the ocean.
The three men proceeded southwark
between the lake and Cocopahs for
| distance of ten miles or so and there en-
countered two Mexicans and white
man. The two former were named Mar
garlic Angulo and Felipe Moreno, and
| the Americans name was not learned,
but from the description he is thought
to be Fred Wassum, who left this city
| for the Cocopah placers some weeks ago.
Garcia continues the story as follows:
1.-THE men came from Los Picaohos by
way Of Niji and had been without wa
ter for several days, and one of them,
Margarito Angulo, was already "razy.
| He was as deaf as q post and Wa cred
| around like drunken man. He paid no
attention to my guide, and we had 10
| lay hold of him to make him drink. In
few hours he was all right. The 9TH
ers were i'll their right minds, but in
| terrible condition, and as / saw their
swollen tongues my own began to swell,
| for had passed through the same tor
| ture only two days before, and even now
| my tongue swells while / think of 1t.
We gave them water, and they soon re.
vived and continued ON their way. They
were burdened with a dry washer and
many tools and moved slowly, so we
left them, my guide giving them direc-
tions where to find the next water.
"a few miles farther we came upon
the bones Of a man lying stark on the
sand about % yards from the lake.
| There was no flesh left. The coyotes had
I found the body. One leg was gone, but
| the rest Of the remains were there The
| head lay toward the north, face upward.
The whiskers were dark and turning
gray, and the hair was the same. The
man had worn a blue jumper, q red
woolen undershirt one boot and brown
slouch hat. I found cheap clasp purse
in his jumper pocket which contained
this paper, which is q piece of an en-
velope or paper sack, addressed james
Moore, paymaster A. t. and s. F.,
Topeka In the purse was also part of
a greenback. There was nothing else to
identify the body. The boot was about
No. 8, and the man did not seem to
have been large.