The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-14

eoAIlSs
The maps all make q mistake in
bringing the Great American desert
to termination shortly after it en-
tiers Juab county; as a matter of geo
graphical fact, the famed waste ex-
tends more than a hundred miles
further 20 the south, and no part of it
more fttingly bs rs out its designation
than the portion which the maps give
other and various names TO. For in
stance Wah Wah valley, west of the
range in which Frisco is situated,
comes as near being a Sahara in minia-
ture as any other tract of land within
the great domain. In no part of it is
there other vegetation than a stunted,
brittle, unnu5ritious brush, and nearly
the whole of the northern part for a
diameter of ten or twelve miles is in
nocent even at that, or anything else
possessing animate or vegetable life.
A dingy white clay producing a mirage
as perfect as ever lured a famished
traveller to distraction and death,
spread over an area at anysand every
point as level as a billiard table. are
the ever prevailing characteristics of
this particular place, and there are
no GASES between it and the southern
limit Of the desert pictured by the
mars. 1t is all the home of desoiation
in its completest and most forbidding
aspects; if there is ever a drop OF water
found, it is Immediately after a storm
and the depreSsions in which that ele-
ment remains for a short time only
are, as d rule, the repositories OF one
or mora Of the salines which immedi-
ately convert the water into rank
poison. The next valley to the west,
called by the natives Pine valley, per-
haps for the reason that there are no
pines in it, is much the same, except
that it contains much more sand and is
therefore more difficult to get through.
bringing its northern extremity is
dense grove of cedars, and in this
particular locality a few jack rabbits
and an occasional bird give a shade of
relief to what would otherwise be dis
NAL sterile monotony. Even the
mountains which everywhere abound,
precipitous as a rule and in places
even majestic in their towering out
lines, seem 10 be clothed in a perpetual
frown and to be increasingly uttering
the inhospitable admonition, keep
away" This is altogether superf1uous,
as no one who has ever visited them
once would pay second visit except
under a pressure OF business which
could be neither delegated nor de-
ferred.
Just across the line which separates
Utah from Nevada, with its crest, a
never failing bank Of snow. stands
peak named in honor Of the late chief
of the southern confederacy. Jeff Davis.
The contrast which it presents to its
surroundings is quite marked, though
nearer to its base are 20 be found not
only verdure and living water but
civilization and as much of progress as
the circumstances viii admit of. The
incipient village of Burbank. named
for its founder, is close TO the line but
not sufficiently so to breed confusion,
it being clearly and entirely in this
state. Snake creek flows from a great
spring southerly and is well lined with
ranches, while further north and west
is Osceola, with which and its "ac-
tive principle in the personality of
Ben Hampton. q majority of your
readers are quite familiar. One of the
best and purest springs Of flowing
water is that to which the unpreposses- /
sing name Of Wah Wah has been given.
situate on the eastern slope of a pass
through the mountain range which di-
vides the two valleys previously spoken
Of. The water is so soft that it re-
quires more Of it to satisfy the cease
less thirst which all who WOO the wilds |
thereabout experience than any water |
! know Of, and this is another disad- |
vantage, as all that is used must be !
taken along. a ranch is maintained !
at this point, also at the only other !
spring near by, Biers', on the west |
side of Pine valley-that is, if some |
thirty or more miles of a dreary road +
permit the use of such a word as !
near" in such a connection. And |
there you are. Dost like the picture?
There is legend, derived partly from |
some pioneers and partly from Indian !
sources, to the effect that somewhere |
within the region which l have en-
deavored to describe is a gold mine or
ledge of fabulous wealth. I have seen |
q sample said to have come from this |
hidden treasure, and it was certainly |
beautiful to behold. 1t was decom- |
posed quartz of a yellowish brown |
color and thickly studded with minute |
par icles of the celestial fire Prone |
theOs drew from heaven" AS nature ,
has averaged things with tolerable |
evenness, 1 should say that wherever |
the ledge from which the specimen
came may be, it is not only guarded by /
difficulties and shielded by DISCOURAGE
inch or so in width between wallis of
unyielding adamant, otherwise it must,
through the attrition Of the ages, have
been wrested from its abiding place
and crumbled piece by piece into the
barren soil beneath, its glittering
grains sinking deeper and deeper with
each succeeding shower or other dis
turbance of the elements in its vicinity.
The quartz, If in existence at all, is I'M
doubtedly in such a place and amongst
such a formation, that the genus
prospector of longtime experience
would scarcely look for it there at all,
thus confirming, alphabetically at
least, the saying that gold is where
you find it This reminds me that a
tenderfoot is as apt to strike paying
ledge as is the most horny hoofed crag-
stofzner in the business; the elements
of chance and fools luck figure more
largely in the matter Of seeking out the