The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-07-05
Bcrrcr$ Of Death GALLEY.
The DesoIate Region Where So Many Have
Persisted.

(H. T. Griswold. in New York Evening
Post.)
Los Angeles-The most thorough ex-
ploration made of the mysterious and
grewsome Death valley in California
since Lieutenant w. B. Crawford's
expedition there in 1890 began with
the cool days of last November
and will close for a season when
hot weather comes to Death val
icy in May. The expedition con-
sists of a dozen mineralogists
botanists and biologists of California
and several biologists from Boston and
Chicago. The building of the Los An
Eeles, San Pedro & Salt Lake railroad
from Salt Lake City, Utah. to Los
Angeles, Cal, through the desert coun-
TRY adjacent to Death valley has
reused interest in the mineral posi-
bilities of this little known corner of
the Union. With a railroad, by which
ores. borax and saline products may
be hauled cheaply to smelters and
market, there may be fortunes to be
found even in so forbidding a bit of
the earth's surface as this. Thus far
the explorers have located. under the
United States mineral laws. the largest
deposits of inter in North America.
several beds of naturally formed borax.
besides numerous outcroppings of silver
and copper ores. The expedition has
carefully studied the remarkable topog-
raphy and geology of Death valley. To
cover the subject thoroughly. however,
many months will be required. and
when cool weather returns next fan
the expedition will resume its work for
another season.
Death valley lies in Inyo county,
about 80 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 quint-
essence Of all that is melancholy, grim
and withered in desert characteristics.
The valley proper is about 100 miles
long and fifty wide. While most of
lnyo county for thousands of square
miles is plateau averaging 5000 feet
in altitude. Death valley in from 800
TO $50 feet below sea level. Mount
Whitney, to the east, is over $4,000 feet
high, and the descent from that to the
valley is very precipitous. All about
are mountain walls of bleached gran
ite. In some places the walls rise sheer
several thousand feet. The valley is
scanned with deep canOns and desolate
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
145 in the shade, and when rocks are
a shimmerfng white and the alkali
wastes are scorching, even the strong
est cannot make the journey safely
The bottom of the valley is made up
o. great acres of saline deposits, beds
n nd .I4 s,l, 4
strong sunshine, present a CHASTITY ap-
pearance with their glistening white
ness. The bedrocks are shale and
schist left from the Jura -triassic pc
ROD but a most extensive volcanic
eruption has so scattered and demoral-
lied the various formations that widely
different deposits are often found
within few feet of one another. There
are dozens of craters of extinct vol
canoes 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 lonely and CHASTITY.
Sand hills that shift and grow and
diminish with every desert whirlwind
abound, and great sink holes (half 4
mile in diameter) are found all over
Death valley. as dry as powder with
where it was deposited thousands of
years ago. The Indians of the Mojave
desert call the valley Devils Hollow
mingOjunk)," and none will ever go
farther into it than the threshold. ma
then only in winter. A wealth of I'M
canny stories is in the lore of the Mo-
jave tribe about bad Indians who have
been condemned to live through all
eternity in Death valley.
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
lifeless in Death valley. While the
waters of melting SHOWS on the lofty
mountains run tumultuously down the
canyons on the western sides of the
Sierras. they never reach Death valley
on the eastern side, for they are sucked
away in the vast sandy stretches long
before they pass the feet of the noun
tains. Nowhere else in all America is
evaporation 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 mining
prospector has gone insane with thirst
in a few hours, when on the edge of
Death valley. The desert from Mojave
western edge of Death valley is fire.
quently dotted with the graves of
teamsters and prospectors who have
reeled and died on the hot sands when
they had run short of drinking water
The mirages of Death valley, the ex-
plorers say, are the most remarkable
in the world Every day in any season
one sees among the parched hills and
scalded mountain sides, phantasmic
pictures. miles in area, of foaming
mountain streams, sylvan shades, al
1alfa fields and browsing cattle-scenes
reflected from the other sides and tops
of the Sierras. Occasionally scenes
from the Pacific ocean may be reflected
IN the mirages, and sailing ships and
tossing waves may be seen amid the
shimmering desolate sand hills and al
kali canyons of Death valley. The In
dams call the mirages the Big Spirits
pictures. Sometimes in the hottest
weather the mirages viii remain float
ing wonderfully distinct in the valley
for a day at a time, but generally it
lasts only a few minutes. Then the
phantasma vanishes in a twinkling, to
be soon succeeded by another-until as
many as seven different mirages have
been seen there in one day.
Sandstorms are a serious thing on the
Colorado and MoJaNe deserts, but no.
where do they approach the deadliness
Of a sandstone in Death valley. The
simoons of the Arabian deserts are
well known in literature, but the pres
ent explorers of Death valley say the
simoons are mere babes by the side of
a bowling gale of hot sand in this
place. The hot air rising from the can
yons and bottoms Of the valleys en-
counters the cold atmosphere currents
from the Sierras and Rockies, and the
rushing of the cooler air into the valley
Instantly creates a storm undreamed
Of in any other part Of the world. Moth
Ing alive can brave the hurricane. The
man who will keep close within tent,