Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-06-21
THE PLAINS OF YUMA
somE OF THE cuRlosITles OF THE
COLORADO DESERT.

COLORADO DESERT.
Graves Each of which Tells n story
of IL Tragedy of Heat, Thirst and
Death-0dd stones and Shells That
StrcN the barren Region.
There is II section of the Colorado
desert where nature has left some re-
markabc records. She has visited the
region alternately with fire and water
and has left it with neither. 1t is the
part of the desert, says the Los Ange-
les Times, and it is stunned alike by
man and beast That there is good
and sufficient reason for avoiding this
locality is attested by numbers Of
graves, namelcss 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 ut the
head Each tells the story of Il
tragedy of heat, thirst and death.
Those items are about all that is ever
known of the stories of those who
perish. Their mummiiied bodies or
blenched bones are found long after
the struggle is over, and the finder, re-
speeding the memory of the unknown,
scoops hole in the earth, lays the
CHASTITY relic within and piles up the
only monument available in that wild
region.
The plain now lies nearly a hundred
feet below the level of the sea, and the
rocks of the plain and the bases Of the
mountains are washed and eroded in Il
wonderful manner AIingling 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 curiosi-
ties, and certain sections of the field
| seem devoted to certain shapes and
| figures.
For instance, one passes through u
| region which he at once names the cab
| bage patch, for it presents the appear
ancc of field of those vegetables
which have turned to stone. The waves
have worn the rocks into round bowl
ders about the size of the vegetable
which they so much resemble and have
cut into the globes. Illuminating them in
perfect imitation of the leafy layers of
the garden vegetable.
| Another locality is devoted almost eN-
clusively to dinner plates, Thousands
of rounded, thin disks are scattered
over the plain or are piled scores deep
in singular piles, each piece shaped eX-
actly like the crocRery which adorns
| our tables and quite as thin and SYM
metrical.
Another section of this truly wonder
| full region is given almost wholly to
dumbbells. These vary in size from
pieces weighing one or two pounds up
to those seemingly calculated FOR eNer-
cising the muscles of giant and
weighing thirty or forty pounds each.
In almsst 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 We're 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 thirteen
inch guns OF modern warfare. 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
animals stone quoits, stone ornaments
in varied and unique designs, stone
canes-in fact, almost everything con-
celvable in nature or art initiated in
stone OH the plain of Yuha.
In one portion of Yuha rise two hills
or small mountains. One might mis-
take them in the distance for ancient
craters, but when lie approaches the
eminences lie discovers them to be
monuments to an ancient life-the rec
ords of species now extinct. They are
shell mountains, great beds Of prehis-
toric 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 SO much
resemble as to lead to the suspicion
that they are the remains Of the ances-
tors OF our much priced bivalve.
The lesser hill is composed Of tiny
shells of II prehistoric type Of brachio-
poda. Like the larger shells, they are
f. Id except on the surface in an IN,
disturbed 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 ex.
poets when he opens the valve Of the
shell to find the living creature within.
Ont Hnur SuuSl,inn