Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1896-11-05
nAzEp ON rHg DESERT.
. Man Dies Of thirst within One Hundred
ID Fifty Yards OF Lake Of Fresh Water.

Man Dies Of Thirst within One Hundred
and Fifty Yards OF a Lake Of Fresh Water.
On the burning sands of Cccopah des-
srt beside lake that appears to be of
sbs coolest and the purest Of fresh wa.
,or lie the bones of an American who
S;ed of thirst and around him are five
~ six holes Of two or three feet in depth.
which he dug with his finger nails in q
frenzy of thirst. His fingers are worn
oT at tho ends, and only his whitening
homes are left to bear witness to the
tragedy.
lose Garcia, who makes living by
neddling from one little camp to anoth.
sr on the desert, has returned from n
trip which began ON Aug. 90. He left
here at that time and engaged a guide
st the new placer camp at Los Picachos,
below the boundary line, to take him to
a mining camp in the Cocopah noun
tains in the heart of the desert. The
Uuide was named Quirino Sosilio, a
half breed, and with them went also
Frank Gotta, 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.
,culation 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
Laeuna Salada, that lies between the |
Cocopah 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 1t 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 a
distance Of ten miles or so and there en-.
countered two Mexioans and q 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 Cooopah placers some weeks ago
Garcia continues the story as follows:
"The men came from Los Picachos by
way of Mil and had been without wa
ter for several days, and one of them,
Margarito Angulo, was already crazy.
he was as deaf as a post and wandered
around like drunken man. He paid no
attention to my guide, and we had to
ay hold of him to make him drink. In
! few hours he was all right The 9TH
rs were in their right minds but in a
errible condition, and as l saw their
wollen tongues my own began to swell,
or l had passed through the same tor
ure only two days before, and even now
ny tongue swells while l think of it.
We gave them water, and they soon re.
lived and continued ON their way. They
we're burdened with a dry washer and |,
many tools and moved slowly, so we
eft them, my guide giving them direc-
ions where TO find the next water.
"a few miles farther wo came upon :
be bones Of q man lying stark on the
and about 20 yards from the lake.
here was no flesh left The coyotes had n
ound the body. One leg was gone, but
ne rest of the remains were there. The
cad lay toward the north, face upward.
he whiskers We're dark and turning
ray, and the hair was the same. The
IAN had worn a blue jumper, q red
oolen undershirt, one boot and a brown
ouch hat found cheap clasp purse
his jumper pocket which contained
lis paper, which is piece of an en-
'lope or paper sack, addressed james
oore, paymaster A. T. and S. F.,
opeka In the purse was also part of
greenback. There was nothing else to
entity the body. The boot was about r,
No. @. and the man did not seem to
we been large