Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-09
Some Of the Horrors of a Celebrated
Region.
HOTTEST PLACE ON THE WHOLE EARTH
The Temperature is Higher There
Than Anywhere in the Sahara.
RIVER WATERS POISONOUS


W. F. Curtis in the. Chicago Record.
About sixty miles north of Barstow Cal,
where the Los Angeles branch of the Santa
Fe railroad leaves the San Francisco line
| is that awful desert known as Death val
| ley 1t is a pocket, a sink in the earth.
| an average of 200 feet below the level of
| the sea- and was once the bed of a salt
! lake, which has evaporated in that dry and
rainess atmosphere, and left an area about
seventy-five miles long and from six to
| twenty-five miles wide, in which human
existence Is almost impossible because Of
| the heat and the lack of moisture.
Death valley is hemmed in on all sides
| by mighty mountains, the Funeral and
Amargosa ranges which rise to 5000 feet
| on one side and 5000 feet on the other.
| Telescope peak. the most conspicuous of
| the range measures 0,93S feet. Along the
| east side of the desert is a narrow, glisten-
| ing artery of salt. The remainder of the
bottom is covered with a thick deposit of
| borax. The crust is thin and usually
breaks through under the feet of the trav-
eler but in one place it is strong enough
to hold up heavy teams that follow the
roadway across it. At the northern end
there is a salt marsh surrounded by de-
post of white, shifting sand and ashes
mixed with "a tenacious clay. 1t is very
soft and can be traversed only with great
difficulty.
The valley is entirely destitute of vege-
tation but is bordered on the west by
clumps of mesquite trees and other species
of desert shrubs and cacti The animal
forms are few, horned toads. lizards ana
snakes being the only living creatures with
the exception of small black gnat, Whlch
during the spring torments travellers by
singing their ears, eyes and noses Around
the rugged walls that inclose the valley
mountain sheep are seen frequently ana
two or three camps of Piute Indians can
usually be found there during the hunting
season. There only two permanent
residents near the valley. brothers known
as Cub and Phi Lee, who married Piute
squaws and have lived apart from the
world for many years in mountain can
yon, apparently contented with their lot.
A San Francisco company has been en-
gagged for several years in taking out bo-
rax from what is satirically called Green
land Ranch" About thirty acres are
fenced in, and water is brought from a
spring about nine miles distant in the
mountains. and stored in two reservoirs,
for mechanical and irrigation purposes. As
is usually the case. the soil of the desert is
very productive when Watered and cult
waited, and Yields six or seven crops of
alfalfa a year, with vegetables and fruits
of most extraordinary growth. The borax
is hauled by steam motors to the railway
station at Daggett, on the Santa Re road.
The company formerly used twenty mule
teams. but the difficulty of sustaining ami
NAL life in the desert was so great that the
steam motors were substituted. narrow
gauge railroad is now projected. and it is
believed the profits from the boraX mine
will justify it.
BOrax Miners.
The employees in the borax mine receive
so day. and they earn it. for they are
engaged in what Is probably the deadliest
occupation known, and neither man nor
beast can survive in that climate for
great while. The hands change frequently
because they become exhausted The dry
air and the heat of the the lnois
ture in their bodies rapidly that they
cannot live there q great while without
losing their vitality. They drink a great
deal, and some of them sleep in tubs of
water in order to replenish the moisture of
the system The average life of the mules
that We're formerly engaged in hauling boz
| rax from the mines to the railway was
only six months. They became broken
winded and consumptive from inhalng the
dust of the desert and enduring the heat.
The wagons We're made especially for their
work. and weighed 5000 pounds. The usual
| load was 10000 pounds, and ii was hauled
by a team of twenty mules. Behind each
wagon was tank containing 100 gallons of
water, from which the animals Were given
a buckctful at intervals of hour during
their siXty-mile journey across the bitter
sands. Each wagon was accompanied by
five or six men. The mules We're driven by
a braided rope. called the jerk line,
which was attached to the bits of the off
mule of each team. The driver sat under
an awning the wagon and cracked his
whip. but he had little responsibility, for
the road was plain, and in that terrible
heat no animal had energy enough to
sist orders Some times. when wagon
broke down and the water in the tank gave
| out, the mules became frantic and fled into
| the desert. where they died Of thirst. The
! expense of replacing the teams SO fire.
| quently led the managers of the mine to
abandon them and adopt steam as a mo-
| tive power.
An Impressive Silence.
Over the whole region hangs an awful
and most impressive silence. Day after
day month after month. year after year
and century after century, the fierce sun
has beaten down from a cloudless sky upon
the bitter soil, with a temperature that can
be compared with that of the bottomless
pit. The atmosphere is totally devoid of
| moisture and everything that is exposed
| dries very rapidly. The body of horse or
man will not decompose, but becomes
desiccated and finally crumbles to dust.
Some time ago an emplOye of the borax
company persisted from thirst while trying
| to find lost mule, and his body lay from
June until the following September in a
perfect state of preservation, except that
| 1t was shriveed by the heat and the evap-
Grafton of moisture.
Such an atmosphere of course causes an
intense thirst in both and animals
:hd the Unsuitable longing for water cannot
De SatlSlled except by coplnuS drinking. In
the northern part of the valley is a sink of
| bitter water which some facetious explorer
christened Saratoga Springs" and at the
southern end is a so-called river named the
Armagosa, which Is of the strangest
freaks of nature In some unknown spot
across the Nevada boundary a number of
| hot mineral springs unite to form little
stream which runs off towards the south,
winding and twisting among the soft
marshes and the sand dunes. here and
there disappearing from sight, only to
emerge again from the sand few miles
farther on. until it makes a bold sweep
around the southern end Of the Funeral
range of mountains and disappears in the
bofax beds of Death valley. It is one of
the Strangest and most unaccountable of
rivers. Its waters are inconceivably vile.
lhey hold in solution large quantities of
salt, soda, borax and other minerals, and
are a deadly poison. People who have
drunk OF them have always persisted
Surface Waters Are Poison.
Dreadful as Death valley is, it's north
western arm. known as Mesquite valley is
worse All the waters upon it's surface are
poison, and down through the canyon a hot,
suHocat1ng wind blows with terrible veloc-
lily. During its course through the desert
II frequently gathers clouds of white sand
hnre