Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1896-06-25
DEATH VALLEY.

Word comes from the West that
Death valley has claimed another VIC
tim. An unknown man, supposed to
be a prospector, was found by some of
the borax workers face down in the
alkali. 1t was not from thirst he died;
there was puddle-this is the period
of cloudbursts in the hideous shadow
of the fantastic Funeral mountains
near him, but he lay there dead, and
nearby stood his pack animal, with
food in the alforjas.
Death valley is only strip itself
eight to sixteen miles wide, but the
man who could walk across it at its
worst has never been born. With the
fierce sunlight blazing down, being
cast back from the sand, so that even
in the shadow the thermometer regis
ters nearly l40 degrees, with the air
full of salt and the sand giving under
his tread, he'd die half way. You
can't drink water enough to slake your
thirst, and travellers are found dead
with oantaans Of water beside them.
The only fresh water in the valley
comes from the gloomiest feature OF
all, the spotted, strange-stained Fu-
neral mountain. The single employee
of borax enterprise has managed to
make alfalfa grow on little plot-the
only green place in Death valley
Back from this there are hills as white
as -four mountains, covered as cleanly
by borax as if it had fallen like snow
Around the base of the Funeral
mountain curves the Amargosa river
Nobody has ever seen water flowing
upon the surface of this river bed, but
the ghost of a great river, miles wide
is there between great perpendicular
banks, hundreds of feet high. No,
body has followed the river bed to its
conrca or traced if to its disappear.
ance. Somewhere down under the
bed the water flows, the scientists say
but whether it is yard or mile
down even they do not know. Ever
when the skies crack and let the cloud
bursts through, no water runs over the
Amargosa river sands. The thirsty
earth can drink it up faster than 1t cal
fall.
About the valley lives almost every
venomous thing that crawls in the
West. Rattlesnakes, tarantulas, cen
tipedes, scorpions, even ella monster.
those hideous slow lizards that every
scientist says are harmless and every
frontiersman says are deadly.
The valley never lacks for victims
There is gold there-gold enough fol
many fortunes, and year after yeal
men seek it, even where the SUI
scorches and sets them mad.
The gold had been found, not once
but many times. This frightful place
had more tales of lost mines than any
other. The Pegleg, the Breyiogle
the Mansfield claim, the Lost Padr'
mine. and many more have tempted
prospectors back to the pit of glarin!
alkai. These are real mines. II
Southern Californian towns they vii
show YOU ore brought back by the
original discoverer, rock all a-glitter
ing with the precious points, but II
the whole list no one has rewarded 1t
finder. The Pegleg discoverer, tn
first and richest of all, could never fine
his wav back to the boulder that Jut
ted through the white cap Of bora:
and revealed the wealth below II
tried again and again, until he coul'
no longer find credit for the -four an'
bacon he must have to live OF Will
he searched. He left his ore specl
mems and his map to another man
who has kept up the search for TWEEN
tv years and hasn't found ii yet.
Old Breyfogle trailed his way ou
of the desert with more rich rock. H
told of cave in a canyon where b
crawled to find shelter from cloud
burst, and found the richest rock tina
was ever brought out of the gold eOun
try. He showed the rock when h
came out, and started back to his min
with mules laden with water and pre-
visions. OF course, he was followed
| His find was too big to be left to on
man, but old Breyfogle knew the noun
tains and the men who prospect anon
| them, and he doubled on his trai
| made false starts, and at last shoe
the followers off the scent andvanisheo
| He never came back.
The Lost Padre mine is the onl
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