Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1897-07-27
CEATH VALLEY HORRORS.
WATER WILL NOT QUENCH THIRST IN
THIS INFERNO.-No STIFFNESS ON
EARTH so DREADFUL.

Word comes from the west that Death
Valley has claimed another victim. An
unknown man, supposed to be a prospcc-
tor, was found by some OF the borax
workers face down 10 the alkali. Ii Was
not from thirst that he died; there WAS a
puddle--this is the period Of cloud bur:ts
In the hldeous shadow OF the fantastic
Funeral Mountain-near him, but lie
lay there dead, and near by stood his
pack animal, with food In the alforsjs.
The men Who live with the simmer Of
the white sand In their eyes would be
surprised 10 hear people castiog about
for reason for this mans death.
"Why, he died Of the DESERT" any Of
the borax men would tell you, which be-
ing interpreted into the language OF the
men who live in cities, means that his
heart broke from the loneliness, the hope
lessness, the horrid silence, and he put
his face In the alkali and gripped the
sand and died.
This may seem absurd to the man who
does not know what silence is. A bost
In the middle of the ocean In dead lin
is a roaring noise mill when compared to
the stiffness In Death Valley. In the
boat, II you move, you rock and the
water splashes, and when you touch the
boat IL gives live sound. In the desert
YOU can hear the breathing OF your stray
ing horse quarter OF a mile away. AMI
when he snorts In the night you start up
and feel the air tremble. III you wals,
your footballs are muilled in the velvet
sands there Is no chirp OF insect or cry
OF bird. Even the vulture keeps of the
desert.
Ofcourse, everybody does not die OF the
desert, any more than everybody in the
city dies during an epidemic, but death
that Is not from hunger, thirst or cold.
not from recognized disease and not
from violence, comes TO men where the
ribbon OF salt, whittier even than the
white sands, runs down to the sink hole,
$50 feet below the sea.
Death Valley Is only strip itself eight
10 sixteen miles wide, but the man who
could walk across IL at its worst has
never been born. With the fierce sunlight
blazing down, being east back from the
sand, so that even In the shadow the
thermometer registers nearly li09,
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, aud travellers are found dead
with canteens OF water beside them.
The only fresh water In the valley
comes from the gloOmiest feature OF all,
the spotted, strange stained Funeral
Mountain. The single employe OF a 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 noun
tains, covered rs cleanly by borax as II j.
had fallen like snow.
Around the base OF the Funeral Mount
ain curves the Amsrgoss River. Nobod,
has even seen water flowing upon the sur
face OF this river bed, but the ghost Of y
great river. miles wide, Is there between
great perpendicular banks, hundreds OF
feet high. Nobody has followed the river
bed TO It's source or traced 1t TO Its disap-
pearance. Somewhere down under the
ned the water flows, the scientists say,
hut whether 1t Is yard or a mile down
even they do not know. Even when the
skies crack aud let the cloud-bursts
through, no water runs over the Amar-
gosa River sands. The thirsty earth can
drink It up faster than IL can fall.
Death Valley Is beautiful, but the man
who explores II and the uncanny mount
tains about 1t comes back, II he comes al
all, gaunt and wasted. La bis blistered
eyes are the images Of the mirror-ltke sea
OF salt, the blurr OF the blszing sun, the
heaped-up mounds that tell where some
body has found dead man and put him
out Of sight, the bleached skeleton, moi
whittier than the earth on which IL lies.
aud not the gay colors Of the Funeral
peaks, the picturesque rounded tops OF
the Monts Blanco, the quaint crags OF
the dead rivers cliff banks.
About the valley lives almost every
venomOus thing that crawls In the west
-rattlesnakes, tarantulas, centipedes,
scorpions, even ella monsters, those
hideous slow lizards that every scientist
says are harmless and every froDtiersmap
says are deadly.
The valley never lacks for victims.