The San Francisco call., 1899-08-13

the canyons OF the mountains that wan
this valley Of desolation. There, too, Is
the curious "self-rising earth" As far
as the eye can see it appears in curving
outline, up and down as If puffed up by
q natural yeast The unfortunate crea-
ture who steps upon the little hills Will
crash through, for they are not much
more than fragile crusts. Beneath is a
swamp of thin, Shiny, salt mud of un-
measurable depth. Still stranger is that
section of the valley which, for want of
a better name, is called salt earth" In
Vulnerable pinnacles, tapering to points
as fine as needles and over a foot long,
rise in close array from the ground.
These are as hard as stone and as dan
gerous as sharpened steel.
This land is a deSolate waste of IMAM
innate mineral objects. The volcanoes
have symmetrical, sloping sides, and each
has the same distinguishing characterts-
tic-a crater. Some are dead, their fires
having been extinct for ages, and many
of these are nearly filled with ashes or
solid masses of lava which have cooled.
One of these extinct craters, near the
edge of the basin, is on a mound whose
apex is about twenty feet above the sur
rounding level. This mound is one of the
largest in the region, and its base covers
two or more acres. The crater is fully
seventy feet across and is filed with
of the crater for many feet below the
surface; but farther out this little ele-
waited lake Is practically bottomless. A
line with a sinker attached fell 300 feet
and did not touch the bottom. One never
sees q bird there. Not even bug has
been known to venture into this valley
of death. AS for trees or vegetation Of
any kind there is none. Even the cactus,
that friend of the desert, cannot find root
here. At the springs Of cold water not
q blade of grass or a tuft OF moss finds
life.
A very interesting object in this land
is huge volcano that is on the outskirts
of the valley proper, and therefore easy
to study. 1t is fifty feet high and has q
circumference of 800 feet at the base. 1t
- an active volcano and is the largest
elevation in sight, though there may be
bigger ones farther in the interior never
discovered by man: but circuit made
entirely around the edges of the basin
has failed to find its equal in size or any
thing even approaching 1t. 1t is an ac-
coulmodating monster. 1t has regular Pc
RODS Of unrest, and whenever 1t wants
to spit fire or vomit rocks and molten
mud it gives notice of its intentions by
a. peculiar roar before which all other
sounds become stilIed 1t groans as If
with a mighty pain, and If one should
chance to be standing on the edge OF the
crater and preserve his balance long
enough to take a good look inside he
would see masses of molten matter far
down begin to heave and boil and surge
up and down with convulsive moves.
That is an opportune moment to de-
part. In a quarter of an hour the bub-
bling seething, rumbling caldron within
has risen to the level of the crater and
it's streaming red-hot contents are pour
ing over the sides, while with an tncreas-
ed thunder and splurging noise little col
umns of lava spout up into the air and
humps of mud and stones are thrown out
and shot far away. These commissions
last only a few minutes, and then the
old fellow takes rest for a period vary
ing from thirty-six to seventy-tWo nours.
It takes tWenty-four hours, however, for
the elected matter to cool sufficiently to
hermit one to approach the crater. What
this volcano does is repeated on small
er scale by all the other active volcanoes,
and as they are countless In number, 1t
follows that the din of eruption is con-
ttnuous and well-nigh deafening. The air
ts alwevs murky with smoke and steam,
and cinders and particles of dirt and
ashes drop so necessarily that one Is COW
cred with dark yellow dust in very few
moments.
Perhaps the greatest curiosity in this
uncannv land by the Colorado River is
What the naturalists in California call
a lake of ink Scientific journals have dis
cussed time and again what this lake of
ink really is. 1t Is great pool of a black
writing ink more than anything else. 1t
IS situated about half a mile from the
large volcano just described, and lies flush
with the ground. 1t is about an acre in
area The surface of the lake is coated
with gray ashes from the volcanoes to the
thickness of about half a foot, and the
explorer in those parts who is not look
ing out for this freak of nature would
be very apt to walk into it. The Indians
have score of horrible legends about
bad red men who have gone down to
frightful deaths beneath the ashes. Sur
veyors have found that the lake is some
300 yards deep in some places, and no bot
tom can be found in others. There is
nothing but theory as to the source of
the supply for the lake. but no one seems
to know the component parts of the acre
of black fluid The Indians say it is COM
posed of the blood of bad Indians, who are
suffering in their hell amid the volcanoes
Samples of the lake have been brought
to Yuma and Los Angeles for tests and
examination 1t has been found good for
common marking purposes. Cotton goods
that have been soaked with the strange
black fluid keep their color for months,
even when exposed to the sum- and the
goods have a stiffness that is somewhat
like weak starch. A gallon Of the lake fluid
was sent to the Smithsonian institution at
Washington the other day for analysis
There is lake of a somewhat similar
fluid in Nicaragua, and it is close beside
group of ancient volcanoes. The black
fluid of Nicaragua is a deadly poison. It
has never been satisfactorily analyzed.