Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-07-08
ON THE PLAINS OF YUHA.
Wonderful Curiosities Found In a
Deadly Desert.

From the Los Angeles Times
There is a section of the Colorado desert
where nature has left some remarkable rec
ords She has visited the region. alter
nately with fire and water, and has left it
with neither 1t is the most desoate. wild,
barren forbidding part of the desert, and
II is stunned alike by man and beast That
there is good and sufficient reason for
avoiding this locality Is attested by num-
bers of graves-nameless, for the most part
found in the terrible region.
These graves are simple affairs. merely
mounds of earth with n border of stones
about each and a pile of rocks two or three
feet high at the head Each tells the story
of a tragedy of heat, thirst and death.
Those Items are about all that is ever
known of the stories of those who perish
Their mummifed bodies or bleached bones
are found long after the struggle is over.
and the finder. respecting the memory or
the unknown, scoops mole IN the earth.
laws the CHASTITY relic within. and piles up
the only monument available in that wild
region
AS recently as December 13. 1904, the
bones of thirst victim were laid in one Of
these lonely. flowerleSs, turfiess graves on
the plains of Yuha.
The plain now lies nearly 100 feet below
the level of the sea. and the rocks OF the
plain and the bases of the mountains are
washed and eroded in wonderful manner.
Mingling with the burnt stones and volcanic
debris are rocks worn by the waves and
shaped into hundreds of fantastic forms.
There are many acres of these stone curl
osities and certain sections of the field seem
devoted to certain shapes and figures.
For instance. one passes through region
which he at once names the cabbage patch,
for 1t presents the appearance or held or
those vegetables which have turned to
stone. The waves have worn the rocks into
round powders about the size of the vege-
table which they so much resemble. and
have cut into the globes, Eliminating them
In perfect imitation of the ieafy layers or
the garden variety.
Another locality is devoted almost exclu-
sively to dinner plates. thousands or
rounded thin disks are scattered over the
plain. or are piled scores deep in singular
piles, each piece shaped exactly like the
crockery which adorns our tables. and quite
as thin and symmetrical.
Another section of this truly wonderful
region is given almost wholly to dumb
bells These vary in size from pieces weigh
ing one or two pounds up to those seem
ingly calculated for exercising the muscles
of a giant and Weighing thirty or forty
pounds each. In almost every instance
these natural dumbbells are well balanced.
the balls at either end of the connecting
piece being Of the same size and weight.
There is in this plain an arsenal also.
While guns and swords and bayonets and
powder were not there to be found, there
are thousands of cannon balls varying in
size from two and three-inch balls TO those
fit for the big 13-inch guns of modern war
fare; and all are of stone. all formed in
natures workshop.
There are other objects innumerable.
There are stone roses, stone lilies. stone
tulips stone leaves. stone birds. stone ami
mails, stone quoits, stone ornaments In
varied and unique designs, stone canes-in
fact, almost everything conceivable In ma
ture or art initiated in stone on the plain of
Yuha.
In one portion of Yuha rise two hills. or
small mountains. One might mistake them
In the distance for ancient craters. but
when he approaches the eminences he dis
covers them to be monuments to an ancient
life - the records OF species now extinct.
They are shell mountains. great beds of pre-
historic bivalves. which were left stranded
when that ancient sea swept back from the
region and left dry and desolate land.
One of these mountains-the large one
Is composed wholly of large. rough shells.
much larger, but less elongated than the
shells of the modern oyster, which In some
respects they much resemble as to lead
to the suspicion that they are the remains
of the ancestors of our much-prfzed bivalve.
The lesser hill Is composed of tiny shells
of prehistoric type Of brachiopoda Like
the larger shells they are found. except on
the surface, in an undsturbed state, both
valves Of nearly every shell being found in
position. Although the mollusk jewellers OF
these shells vanished several centuries ago.
so perfect are the shells one almost expects,
when he opens the valves of the shell. to
find the living creature within