The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-07-31
MOTOR TRAVEL
IS DIFFICULT 7
Flanders Twenty Encounters
Extremely Rough Roads
in Mexico.
ROUTE LEADS THROUGH
TRACKLESS DESERT WASTE
Unparalleled DesOlatiOn Found
by Durable Little 'Under
Three Flags" Car.

SAN LOUIS POToSI, S. L. P, Mexi-
co, July 30,-'That travel by motor car
through the republic of Mexico presents
far more difficult problems than those
encountered i'll even the most sparsely
populated portions of the United States
has been demonstrated during the last
ten days to the complete satisfaction OF
the crew of the Flanders ''20" Under
Three Flags car which is now on the
second half OF its journey through the
country.
The car left Laredo with an added
equipment Of folding cots and blank
cts, compact cooking outfit, provisions
for three days, two 1orgu canvas bags,
containing reserve water supply, and
mattock, the increased weight OF
which raised the car S total passengers
included, to considerably more than 1900
pounds--a figure at which the Flanders
carried cargo of nearly pound for
pound of her own weight, The car made
102 miles the first day and the even
century to Monterey on the second, with
plenty of gasoline III her tank to have
continued another day, had it been nee
essary. The road was little more than
a cattle trail from ranch TO ranch and
nearly all the little Mexican ranches
had been deserted, on account of the
long-contnued drought. The desolation
worked on the nerves of both members
of the crew.
Waste Of Alkali.
For mile after mile the car traversed
rolling waste of alakli, bristllng with
cactus, marked with an occasional dwarf
palm, spotted with thorny mesquite;
scanned with arroyos and inhabited
Once in twenty miles, perhaps, dry
water hole would be passed, strewn
with the bones of the cattle that had
perishsd there. In some cases few
survivors. staggering with starvation
and weak from thirst, would be seen,
their mouths swollen open from the re-
suits of their desperate effort to prolong
their existence by means of the prickly
pear. Overhead SCARED the vultures,
awaiting the inevitable time when one
more of the poor brutes should succumb
and become carrlon.
But this portion of the trip was COM
paratively easy, compared to what
awaited the travellers in the 100 miles
between Monterey and Saltillo.
Undoubtedly there once existed a
road between these points. Had the
trip been planned twenty years ago
one day would have been ample. But
the construction of three lines Of rail
road traversing the valleys of the noun
taiDs which form the characteristic fea-
ture of the region, has completely abol-
iGhp6 nn fhrnunh Two on6 ~,
cases, all travel between villages The
disastrous food which wiped whole
towns out of existence last September
had completed the annhilation of the
highways, cutting them up into a mere
series of arroyos from one to forty feet
In depth with steep sides and covered
with rolling rocks.
Road Vanishes.
The first Froad' tackled was one
which. according TO legend, a regiment
of Mexican soldiery had, in compare
lively recent years, made a forced
march, dragging the colonel carriage,
After forty-1ive miles the road became
trail and then vanished altogether. on
the banks of the dry bed of vanished
Mississippi. The members of the crew
separated and walked along the bank
in opposite directions the entire FIVE
miles TO the mountains on either side.
With 200 soldiers and unlimited ropes
to keep his carriage right side up, the
Mexican colonel would have required an
elevator for that carriage, had he been
called on to repeat his trip. There was
nothing TO do but to turn back, taking
advantage of a lucky mountain pass to
strike the line Of the Central Mexicano
Three days had been lost in the first
attempt. Three more were required for
the remainder Of the trip to Saltillo, via
Paredon. Here the trail was discernible
for more than half way, Then it ended
at an arroyo so deep that only around
the hour of noon was the bottom visible
from the top, On the bank was a camp
where the railroad was raising the grade
and restoring the steel bridge. washed
away in the flood through partially dis
eernible a mile away. high against the
dry side of mountain Another camy
contained party of scientists. exhum
ing the bones of prehistoric animals
laid bare by the flood.
Ono Milo an Hour,
A temporary bridge was in use by the
| railroad, guarded day and night bv mer
whose duty it was to report enginccrs
| attempting TO make more than one milo
| an hour across the bridge which wa,
| only slender framework of ties, and tc
prevent the public from using it. Th,
railroad officials refused tn make an ex
ception of the fUnder Three Flags
car. They would consent. however, tc
allow the use of fat car as n ferr,
boat, In this way the transit was made
materially assisted by number Of
eratuitously loaned poems from tn,
camp, From Paredon the car reached
Saltillo by humping the railroad ties
pounding over the rocky bottom Of tn
Saltillo canyon and following whatevc
trails there wore along the general lin
! of travel
The strain Of almost continual road
making told materially on the crew o
tho car and Interpreter Applewhite, un
| accustomed as weIe the rprulars 70 th