The herald., 1897-04-26
A FISH STORY
Capt. Chittenden's Strange
Find
A WHALE ON THE DESERT
THE DIsCovERER OBJECTS TO
INSINUATIONS
A WHALE ON THE DESERT
Skeleton Of a Stranded Marine Mon
ster Found on the Desert Thirty
Miles From the Ocean

by Captain Chittenden, the well-known
traveller, on the banks Of the Hardy
river in the Cocopah country, Lower
California, which was as follows:
Captain Chittenden, the traveller who
returned a few days ago from trip to
the Cocopah country. 15o miles southeast
of this city. confirms thestory told by Lu-
man Gaskill of the existence of whale
near the Cocopah settlement, forty miles
UP the Hardy river on the desert.
1.-THE story was hardly credited when
it first appeared in the Union few
months ago, Notwithstanding 1t came
from so good an authority as Mr.. Gaskill
People are ready to believe almost any,
thing concerning the mud-volcano re-
gion Of the Cocopah country, which for
marvellous features ie not approached
by any other part of the west, but a
whale forty miles out on the desert
the hottest, dryest and most inaccessible
desert this side of Sahara wac the big
gest fish story of the year.
But Captain Chittenden saw enough
OF the remains of the whale to confirm
it in toto I had heard of Gaskill's
whale said Captain Crlttenden yester-
day, but never for a moment took 1t
seriously until I saw two rough chairs
which the Cocopah Indians had con-
structed of a part Of the whales skel-
eton.
Then I began to investigate, and
found that during the great flood Of
waters in the gulf year or two ago, at
the same time that Guaymas suffered
from the rise OF waters, whale was car
ried bodily up the Hardy river a die
tance Of about thirty-fve miles from
the gulf, and left high and dry I saw
enough of the skeleton to arrive at
close estimate of its length, which was
eighty-seven feet. Yes, sir; Gaskill's
whale was a reality, but 1t didn't come
out of one of the volcanoes through
subterranean passage from the Arctic
sea-
while resting here Captain Chitten-
den is devoting several hours a day to
writing an account of his explorations
for an eastern magazine. He has passed
nearly all his life in travelling, always
in rough parts of the country, and al
though 81 years old is a fine specimen
of manhood and highly educated.
Standing over six feet high, and with
long hair and grizzly beard, he has been
an object Of interest on the streets since
his return from the desert.
"A few years ago he crossed from the
Atlantic to the Pacific through the Brit
ish possessions, and a pamphlet written
by him describing the resources of the
country was purchased by the Canadian
government at a good figure. He has
also written works on the Queen Char
lotto archipelago for the Canadian gov
ernment, and his books on the Cour
'dAlene region and upon Oregon and
Washington have been widely quoted.
I'm all his long journeys however,
Captain Chittenden found no stretch of
desert so arid as the Cocopah country,
and no trip in his experience necessitat-
ed so much walking as the one from the
Hardy river to Campo For the greater
part of the distance he walked, his
little burro following with the camp
equipage."
The story of the finding of the re-
mains of the whale was taken up and
caused some comment, which has
caused Captain Chittenden to write the
following letter to The Herald:
SAN DIEGO, Cal. April 20, 1897.
aid: Upon returning from my recent
expedition through the Cocopah coun-
try, Lower California, 1 told a repre-
sentative of the San Diego Union that
although I felt under obligations to re-
serve the most valuable information OBJ
tanned for my correspondence with
other journals, there was no objection
to his stating that I had seen on the
bank of the Hardy river, more than
thirty miles from the gulf, portion of
the skeleton of a whale which fioated
up on the tide flood during the great
storm which swept over those waters
a few years ago. This morning my at
tention was called to the following COM
ment thereon in the Los Angeles Times
Of April 20:
Captain Chittenden's story of the
stranded whale in the Cocopah desert,
over 300 miles from the ocean is good
enough to have emanated from the phi
lanthrcpic society of Oregon known as
the Collillio Lying club, of which ex-
Governor Murphy of Arizona was secre-
tary during his residence in the webfoot
nation"
For the first time I then examined the
files of the San Diego Union and read
| the account of the interview mentioned,
expecting to find some foundation for
the Times inferential statement that
| the remains Of the whale had been seen
three hundred miles from the ocean.
1t afforded me pleasure to ascertain that
my description of the discovery had
been SO faithfully presented that it
will serve as the best reply that can be
made to those who have erred, either
through their ignorance of the Coco
pah country or from other motives
Mr.. Jenkins Of Campo, who is asso-
ciated with the Gasl1ills in their stock
interests on their Mexican range, told
me that he measured the whale as It
lay on the bank of the Hardy river
before it's flesh had decayed and found
1t to be over eighty feet in length.
have always been very careful to ex-
clude from my reports everything that
would not bear the light of the most
searching investigation, hence my en-
ployment to make important explora-
tions for conservative foreign gov
ernments, and the sale OF three
editions Of my pamphlets upon
the British possessions to the Do
minion and British Columbia govern
ments Of Canada. But although the Los
Angeles Times. in it's efforts to tell q
"hsh story has done 20 In ddscredit-