River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-04-14

H enough wonders to make it at
tractiVe as a field for tie traV-
eler of an inquisitive turn OF
mind who snjoys visiting little
known territory There Ia opportu-
nifty for adventure and scientific study.
There are miles upon miles Of sand
dunes whose rippled surfaces remind
one of the sandy bottom of a pool of
water and whose aridity and menace
to the inexperienced are unsurpassed
by the worst sections of the Sahara
or Tibe:an deserts. Before the wa
ters of the Colorado poured into the
Salton sink, creating lake nearly
800 square miles IN area and 80 feet
deep, there was a marsh with an in
crustatOn of salt from six to twelve
inches chick. This salt was so pure
that the bed waS worked with sue
cess commercially. 1t was constantly
renewed in way that would seem
mysterious in the almost rainless land
to one unacquaintsd with the geologi-
Cal CONDITIONS existing beneath the
sloping surface of saline crystals. Wa
ter flowed down through the soil from
the mountains bordering the desert
on either side at some points under a
pressure of As pounds to the square
men. 1t forced its way up to the sur
race and was there evaporated, Ieav-
Ing the salt behind.
Mud volcanoes provide interest and
excitement for the adventurous trav-
eler. Before the Colorado burst
through into the irrigation canal lust
below Yuma and flowed north through
the dry channels of two ancient rivers
into the Salton sink, there used to be
mud volcanoes north of the Mexican
border and just south of the sink.
They were drowned in the lake which
resulted from tho floods of the Colo
RADIO. There are such volcanoes, how
ever, i'll the desert in the northern
part OF Lower California. The vol
canoes seem uncanny, so strangely
out OF place do they appear in the
silt plain which constitutes most of
the desert surface.
The solfataras in California before
their submergenCe had been visited a
number of times by explorers, although
not always with safety. They rose near
mounds of volcanic rock. One ex-
plorer, in attempting to cross the thin
crust which covered the hot mud bog
separating the mounds from the solid
ground broke through and was scald-
ed so seriously that his explorations
had to be abandoned and his life was
in peril for time.
The miniature craters looked much
like dilapidated beehives and emitted
sulphurous vapors that, crystallizing,
lined the vents with glittering yellow
crystals. The hot water around the
bases of some of the fumaroles was so
acid that shoes or clothing moistened
with 1t were destroyed.
The second group Of solfataras is
about 40 miles south of the interna-
tional boundary line, near the base
OF a dark butte named Cerro Prieto.
They are much more active than were
those on the north side of the line.
They boil constantly and emit unearth-
ly sounds.
One of the riders of big cattle com
fpany, according to a tale going the
rounds of the cattlemen, while under
the influence of liquor, visited this in.
fernal region with its putting jets of
steam, sulphurous odors, treacherous
marshes and weird coloring. He de.
cided to explore the interior of one OF
these Stygian caves. He had hardly
disappeared from view before he reap