Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-01-14
DEATH F0R GOLD.
WESTERN MINeRs ARE RUSHING INTO
CALIFORNIA; DEATH VALLEY.
An Arid Tract In the Molave Desert Which
l. WhItsnsd BY the Bones OF Prospect.
ors.... Reports OF Big Finds.

An Arid Tract In the Molave Desert Wh'cn
l. WhItsnsd BY the Bones OF Prospect
ors....Rsports Of Big Finds.
Once more gold has been discovered
In Death Valley and the Mojave des-
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 30 to 81 and longitude
116 to 11S 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 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 II as long as their strength
lasts. The desert will dream In placid
silence until summer comes, and then
trap, before they can get over the high,
stony ridges that surround Death Val
ley.
The area of the desert is traversed by
numerous parallel valleys running
from northwest TO southeast and
bounded by great ranges of trcelcss
hills. The centre valley Of these is the
one that bears the name of Death. IL
Is the hottest on earth and vles in man,
ways with the bottomless pit. And 10
wonder. 1t Is tom 100 to 500 feet be-
low the level Of the sea.
At various times since its discovery
individuals have penetrated the arid
waste. A government expedition
passed hurriedly through il, but could
not spare time TO make explorations for
fear of losing their lives.
Springs were found, but they were
not sufficient TO quench the thirst of
a suffering mule. The average midi
night heat during summer is said to be
close to 40 degrees, much of which Is
subterranean.
Death Valley is overhung on the east
by the Funeral Mountains. which rise
above II 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 n range Of mountains on
the far side of wide, binding desert.
1.-TWO days will take us across the des-
ert and in the mountains we will fini
water" they argued. So they filed
their water barrels, and, with cracking
whips launched their white prairie
SiiltS ONtl tuc Nnltc anu IuOllOuicCS
waves of the borax desert. Forty
miles, fifty miles, nights encamp-
ment; sixty. seventy-five miles, and the
blue mountains that had hung like n
painting against the sky were 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 n long line. They
wheeled into a stony plateau at the
top. Then great cry broke from
them.
TO the west lay the shining white lev
els of as dead land as God ever made
There were nothing but grease wood
and n few bare clumps Of sagebrush in
sight-nothing but the silence of death
and utter desolation.
And yet 1t was a sight that would
have filed the heart of painter with
delight. TO the northwest lay the
ranges of the Argus and the Ser
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.
TO the north were range upon range Of
mountains nameless and unknown.
At their feet, beyond the mesa, which
they reached later, was n narrow val
ley, all streaked with soda. like the
white ribs of a skeleton, spotted with
lava buttes and blotched with age. 1t
was death to go back. They could
never have survived the journey. They
could only plunge on, into the un-
known.
And so they lowered the wagons by
ropes down to the mesa or table land
below. They could get no further. A
melancholy meeting was held. There
were no tears; only sad questioning
eyes and burning gazes across the
wastes. They resolved to separate.
Each man took his own. Whitherso-
ever the husbands went there went the
wives, faithful, mute and questionless,