The Jennings daily record. [volume] (Jennings, La.) 1900-1903, 1902-06-16


No complete exploration of the
famed Death valley of southern Cali
fornia has ever been made. owing 10
the fact that few human beings could
endure the climatic conditions tnere.
The region is doubtless the most IN
salubrious and torrid on the race OF
the earth, and the bones of men ana
animals that strew it's heated SANDS
testify to the fact that those VINO
named 1t fully understood its nature.
But despite the difficulties that nave
confronted explorers an expedition is
now in the valley which gives prom
Use of revealing to the world many
physical features hitherto matters OF
mere speculation. and adding greatly
to the sum OF knowledge pertaining
to q vast territory so inhospltaDle as
to have inspired a popular dread only
parai,eled by that which surrounds
the deadly upas tree. of fable and
story.
Last November the expedition re-
ferre6 to started on its mission ana
is expected to conclude it's researches
in May 1t consists Of a dozen MINER
alogists, bOtanists and biologists OF
California and several biologists from
Boston and Chicago.
Death valley lies in Inyo county
about $50 miles from the nearest rail
road. $50 miles from the Pacific ocean
and close beside the Nevada-California
state line. 1t is a part OF the MoJaVe
and Colorado deserts and is the qulnt-
essence of all that is melancholy.
grim and withered in desert charac-
&c
100 miles long and so wide. All about
are mountain walls OF bleached gran
lite. In some places the walls rise
sheer several thousand feet The val
ley is scanned with deep canyons and
uesolate whitened gulches, and there
are but few places where one may
cross from one side of it to another
In summer. when the mercury ranges
from 125 TO ] 40 in the shade and when
rocks are shimmering white and
the alkali wastes are scorching. even
the strongest cannot make the jour
ney safely.
The bottom OF the valley is made
UP OF great areas Of saline deposits,
beds of borax and salt. which, under
a strong sunshine, present ghastlE
appearance with their gllstentng
Wilderness There are dozens OF crat-
ers of extinct volcanoes in the valley.
and with their blackened ruins and
coating of dark cinders. acres in area
the general wilderness of the valley
bottoms stands out all the more lone
ly and ghastty.
Sand hills that shift and grow and
diminish with every desert whirl-
wind abound, and great sink holes
(half mile in diametar) are found
all over Death valley. as dry as pow
der, with an alkaline sediment dry
on the bottom. where ii was deposited
thousands of years ago.
There is no known hotter, drier
spot in Africa or Asia. Birds which
abound in the Sierras do not wing
their way across this spot Nature is
absolutely Iifeless in Death valley.
Nowhere else in all America is evap-
oration-so high. Ones thirst must be
slaked every few hours even in the
depth of winter, and thirst soon be-
comes raging and in half a day may
cause insanity. Many a hardy min
ing prospector has gone insane with
thirst in few hours when on the
edge of Death valley. The desert from
Mojave to the Searles boraX works
on the western edge of Death valley
is frequently dotted with graves OF
transfers and prospectors who have
reeled and died on the hot sands when
they had run short of drinking wa
ter.
Sandstorms are serious thing on
the Colorado and Mojave deserts, but
nowhere do they approach the deadli-
ness of a sandstorm in Death Yalley.
The simoons OF the Arabian deserts
are well known in literature, but the
present explorers of Death valley say
the simoons are mere babes by the
side of bowling gale of hot sand in
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