The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1897-01-21
DEATH FOR GOLD.
WESTERN MINERS ARE RUSHING INTO
CALIFORNIA; DEATH VALLEY.
An Arid Tract in the Mojaye Desert Which
is Whtened BY the Bones OF Prospect
ors....Reports of Big Finds.

in Death Ndley anu tue MoJaNc ueS
erts. Once more the long, arid levels
breathless, treeless and lifeless-will
CLEAN with the bones of prospectors
and explorers. Once more wagons will
stand in the hot, white sands with shin
ing, rustless tires, until they rack apart
and drop TO pieces for want of moist
ure to hold them together.
Take down your map and draw line
from latitude 80 to 81 and longitude
116 to lis and you will have within the
enclosure block of desert comprising
10000 square miles.
This vast enclosure, says the New
York Herald, is dotted with the white
bones of dead men and old Jokes of
dead oxen and the paraphernalia of
ancient emigrant trains. No vulture
wheels above in the bald, blue sky; no
wolf or coyote bowls from the sandy
ridges 1t is a sepulchre reigns for
ever. The rush has already COM
menced, and the fiat levels along the
Mojave are marked with the deep
wheel tracks of daring prospectors.
This is because it is winter and in
winter the desert is comparatively
kind. Let them find gold and let them
hang to it as long as their strength
lasts. The desert will dream in placid
silence until summer comes, ana then
the prospectors will die like rats in a
trap, before they can get over the high,
4 tla+ nj
ley.
The area of the desert is traversed by
numerous parallel valleys running
from northwest to southeast and
bounded by great ranges of treeless
hills. The centre valley of these is the
one that bears the name of Death. IT
is the hottest on earth ard vles in many
ways with the bottomless pit. And no
wonder. 1t is from 100 to 500 feet be-
low the Level 81 the sea.
At var'cus times since it's discovery
individuals have penetrated the arid
waste. A government expedition
passed hurriedly through it, but could
not spare time to make explorations for
fear of losing their lives.
Springs We're found, but they were
not sufficient to quench the thirst Of
a suffering mule. The average mid
night heat during summer is said to be
close to 10 degrees, much of which is
subterranean.
Death Valley is overhung on the east
by the Funeral Mountains, which rise
above it in great bald ridges. They
are called the Funeral Mountains be-
cause they have witnessed one of the
saddest tragedies that even the Death
Valley has ever witnessed.
In the early fifties an emigrat train,
steering south, away from the regular
trail, sighted range of mountains on
the far side of a wide, binding desert.
1.-TWO days will take us across the des-
ert and in the mountains we will find
water" they argued. SO they filled
their water barrels. and, with cracking
whips launched their white prairie
ships over the white and motionless
waves of the boraX desert. Forty
miles, fifty miles, Il nights encamp-
ment; sixty, seventy-five miles, and the
blue mountains that had hung like n
painting against the sky We're reached.
No wood, no water, no grass, no song
of birds or sound other than the thirsty
lowing of maddened oxen, the cry of
children and the wall of women. Men
have instincts that are godlike in emer-
gencies such as these.
They parcelled out the precious store
of food and the more than precious
store of water, giving the women and
children two-thirds of everything in
sight. Then they pitched camp at the
foot of the mountains.
On the next day, with infinite trouble,
they gradually rolled the great wagons
to the top of the mountains, one be-
hind the other in a long line. They
wheeled into stony plateau at the
top. Then great cry broke from
them.
TO the west lay the shining white lev
els of as dead a land as God ever made.
There were nothing but grease wood
and few bare clumps of sagebrush in
sight-nothing but the silence of death
and utter desolation.
And yet it was sight that would
have filled the heart of a painter with
delight. To the northwest lay the
ranges Of the Argus and the Sier-
ras, hundreds of miles away. To
the south they could see the Pi-
lot Butte, the Calicos and the
San Bernardino range, beyond which
was safety. These mountains were
blue and family streaked with snow.
10 the north were range upon range of
mountains nameless and unknown.
Al their feet, beyond the mesa, which
they reached later. was a narrow val
ley all streaked with soda, like the
white ribs OF skeleton, spotted with
lava buttes and blotched with age. 1t
was death 20 go back. They could
never have survived the journey. They
could only plunge on, into the I'M
known.
And 30 they lowered the wagons by
ropes down 10 the mesa or table land
NsslnEX ThYV enuld e,ot NJ, f,,,.t1,a