The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1905-08-11

ter methods and more modern equip
ment, together with additional meas
ures looking toward the safety and
comfort of those engaged ip the work,
have made a temporary s%ojourn in the
valley less hazardous, and men have
been induced onee more to accept the
liberal wages offered by the company.
The mule teams are still employed to
haul the product of the mines to the re-
duction works, but at the mines great
traction engines weighing hundreds of
tons are used to carry the crude prod
uct to the gateway of the valley.
During the summer old Sol seems to
concentrate all his energies in burning
the atmosphere of Death Valley to a
crisp. Everything becomes SO fiery hot
that IT literally Kisses. The thermom-
eter settles on lis as the minimum
and does not scruple to show 140 on
especial occasions. The humidity is so
slight that, it matters not how Wig
orously one exercises, perspiration
never manifests itself. The texture of
the skin of one who remains for some
time within the influence of the pecu-
liar atmosphere of the region becomes
like burned leather. In this abnormal
heat a mans thirst demands something
like three gallons of water a day, and
then il is not quenched-the desire is
still importunate. 1t is also a matter
VI record at the California mining
bureau that men who have entered the
their command have died there of
thirst, the acrid, chemically charged
air sapping the moisture from their
bodies more rapidly than they could
supply the drain.
1t has also been verified time and
again that dementia of the most APP
pailing form is apt to precede dissolu-
ton. In this hideous death trap many
a ~prospector has abandoned his search
for treasures and bent all his effort to
an eager, hopeless search for water.
All of the pathways are lined with the
bones of men and beasts, and it is not
an uncommon thing to find the body of
a victim lying shriveled like a mummy.
If left unmutilated by vultures, ants or
coyotes, dead bodies would remain I'M
changed for centuries in the peculiar
air of Death Valley. All animal decay
is Immediately arrested by the drug
im~pregnated air.
OF course the winter climate is not
so destructive. Some persons ave
been able to winter in the valley with
out suffering any marked discomfort.
This is particularly the case with those
who nave found it impossible to live in
moist localities on account of advanced
pulmonary disease. Some years ago a.
Boston lawyer named Patterson and
his wife, who were both victims of
well developed tuberculosis, removed to
several years in the mild coast climate.
In the course of time the disease re
sumed its ravages, and they were adj
vised to seek as dry an atmosphere as
they could find. With that end in view
they chose Death Valley. Against the
remonstrances of friends and the warn
ings of those who realized the danger
of the undertaking, they made their
preparations and set out. At the en-
trance to the valley they met a man
who had been left to guard some min
ing property. He tried to make them
understand the risk they were assum-
ing, but they were deaf to his warn
ings. They selected a hollow in the
| side of a borax mountain for a habita-
tion and proceeded to a life as they
found it. They made periodical jour
news to the nearest ranch for supplies
and appeared to be reasonably content
with their abiding place. At the end
of the seventh year the woman died
of some intercurrent affection, and a
few months later her husband, driven
to desperation by his loss and the bor-
rors of the solitude, became a maniac
and at the approach of a party of pros
pectors fled shrieking into the desert
and was never heard from afterward.
Ellis +. Ames in Deseret News.