Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-25

million and a half of people to the popula-
lions of Arizona and California
Just after the contract was signed and
J. G.. White & Co. were beginning work
on the dam at Yuma the Almighty TOOK
hand in the controversy and flood burst
the banks of the Colorado river and spread
over the desert as l told you in recent
letter. The Salton sea, 1863 feet below the
level of the Gulf of California, the residue
of the great lake which formerly occupied
this desert. has been overlooked, and at
this writing is still rising; SO that the
Southern Pacific Railroad Company has
been compelled to move its tracks to higher
ground
The Minerals in Death Valley.
Death valley has produced comparatively
little treasure thus far, although miners
have been working there for thirty years or
more, encouraged by both the signs and
the scientists. Probably $1O0,OO0,0OO would
cover the entire value, including that taken
from the ranges surrounding the Colorado
and Mohave deserts. Yet scientific men who
have explored all three deserts declare that
the real wealth of those burning sands has
never been touched, and they predict TOR
them future that will satisfy the widest
dreams of avarice. They believe that
southeastern California and southwestern
Arizona contain as much gold as South
Africa. Professor Bailey of the geological
survey, who has made an exhaustive eX-
ploration and probably knows more about
this desert country than any other man,
declares officially his opinion that we have
not yet begun to discover its vast wealth.
There gold fields here which will as
| tonish the world. Every little while some
prospector brings in float rock sparkling
| with the precious metal, which has been
| broken from some ledge as rich, but that
| ledge is hunted for in vain. The day will
| come, however. when these rich lodges will
no or am will
wealth of gold
/ AS an illustration, Professor Bailey tells
| the experience of a party of workmen who
| were engaged in building Senator Clarks
! railroad from Los Angeles to Salt Lake
| City. THE Clark road is building down
| canyon between The Needles and Goff.'' he
| said, land the men had occasion to drive
| several piles. One of the piles split and
| was withdrawn from the EARTH when sew
| eral nuggets were found imbedded in the
| pine
The gold belt of Death valley is described
! by the mineralogists 115 miles long and
| from two to ten miles wide, and silver is
, also more or less abundant. In the Water
| loo Mines in the Mohave desert, ore has
| been found in belt of jasper which yielded
| more than one thousand ounces of silve.
| to the ton. few miles east of Daggett
| are large bodies of iron ore, and south of
| Orc Grande are rich veins of copper. which
| come almost to the surface There are I'M
told quantities of marble and onyx of Won
| derful beauty and fineness, with all the
/
ing lodges have been found, but not until
| railroads built automobile lines are
established, wells dug and other projections
against the dangers of the desert are pro-
Vided will these riches be developed
There several railways contemplated.
Phelps. Dodge & Co. are building westward
from Bisbee, Arizona; the Santa Fe Com
pany, / told you in previous letter, is
building another line directly across the
desert from Phoenix to Los Angeles. A
company has been recently organized in
San Diego to lay track into the Imperial
valley Its survey has been completed and
the right of way and terminal facilities Sc
cured This road is intended to develop
the new irrigated lands in the Colorado
desert but it will be of equal value to the
miners.
Strange Things Happen.
Strange things happen down this way.
The desert is full of mysteries and phenom-
ena which puzzle science while some of the
queerest freaks of the earth and the at
mosphere perfectly simple One of the
strangest of the natural phenomena Is Su-
persition mountain, situated in the south
western part of the Colorado desert on the
| old trail that was followed from Yuma to
Los Angeles before the railroad was fin
| ished. This mountain is regarded with
great awe and reverence by. the Indians
| and superstitious MeXicans, because 1t is
| always changing Its shape. 1t scarcely ever
| presents the same outline two months in
| succession. and sometimes in two weeks,
| or even ten days, will alter it's appearance
so completely that ii cannot be recognized
| For that reason, until its pecuiarities be-
came known 1t was a pitiless enemy to the
early plainsmen and confused them as
| false light betrays the sailor at sea- This
phenomenon Is due to the fact that the
mountain is covered with vast piles of sand,
| which keep shifting with the wind from
| one spot to another They form pinnacle
| domes, cliffs and other rugged and con-
| spicuous shapes, which, to the distant OBJ
server appear like a solid contour of earth
| and rock. A few days later, with change
| in the fierce wind which constantly sweeps
across the plains the sand will be driven
| to another part Of the mountain, and will
| form an entirely new silhouette against the
| sky, so that the Indians believe it to be the
| bode of evil spirits. and the early pioneers