The Alaska citizen., 1912-12-30
Top and Bottom of the u. S.
ARE ONLY A HUNDRED AND HAVE EVERY
CLIMATE BETWEEN THEM

the burning sky. Whatever there is
OF vegetation is extremely thorny
and spiny. while the animal life
consists mainly of rattlesnakes
weird looking lizards. horned toads
and scorpions and tarantulas of as
tonishins size. A gray haze hangs
over and renders indistinct the land
scape, about the whole appearance
of which there is something un
earthly-the two ranges of noun,
tains looking like the backbones OF
couple of monstrous beasts
Once upon time the valley was
long, narrow lake Mineral salts
brought by streams from the
rocks of the mountains. accumulat
ed in it, and when the water fin
ally dried up were left behind in
a sort of crust that extends over It
large part of the desert of today
This crust. mainly composed of
common salt and borax, forms a
strip that is as much as ten miles
wide in places 1t is so glitterngly
white in the sunshine as to threaten
blindness to anybody who ventures
to gaze intently upon it. and in the
distance it looks like a sheet of
water Many is the lost man who
has been deceived by this false ap-
pearance.
Here. in the subcellar of the Unit
ed States. the air is so dry that the
moisture of the human body evap.
crates with great rapidity. One
needs to drink two or three gal
Ions of water a day, and still one
is thirsty all the time If one did
nothing but sit down and drink
water he would still be thirsty.
The aspect of the desert at night
is hardly less strange. 1t is then
that the curious animal population.
hidden during the parching heat OF
the daytime, exhibits a horrid ac-
tivity. Out come the rattlesnakes
and other reptiles from their holes
and from their burrows emerge
short-tailed mice that jump about
after the manner of 'grasshoppers
in pursuit OF the scorpions. on which
they exclusively feed Standing about
here and there. and half visible in
the dim light are specimens of the
dead man cactus" which. five Oh
8 feet in height. look. with their ex-
tended arms. like corpses in uncan.
ny attitudes.
Out of this Valley of Death the
expedition could not go by passing
directly over the Panamint range
because the latter is too steep to
be climbed The landscape on that
side of the desert strip is literally
set on edge. the rocky barrier be
ing SO precipitous that, if the jour
ney were practicable, one would pass
tWo miles from below the sea leve!
to an elevation of 1900 feet.
To get out of ii it is necessary
to go down to the lower end of the
valley. which is about one hundred
miles long. and up through ravine
Deep pools at the end are inhab
tied by eyeless fishes of species
unknown anywhere else in the world
Some distance beyond and south
of the Funeral Range. which hens
in this desert on the east. is Dead
Mountain, supposed by the liz
dams of the neighboring region to
be the abode of their departed war
riors. This notion comes from the
fact that its precipitous rocks are
much broken up. and the sun. shin
ing on it's white points and angles
makes the mountain look from dis
lance as if whole convention oil
ghosts was assembled upon it.
Once in long while great
storm arises to the southwark, ant
river a mile wide flows into Death
Valley. But it does not flow ou
again. 1t is dried up in the sane
and lost
| Among the weird phenomena Of
this most dreadful of deserts are
| miraees those strange optical il
lusions which have misled many {
perishing traveller The coolest sum
| mer temperature is 135 degrees il
the shade On it's way through
the valley the expedition came acros:
the mummified remains of lively,
horses. all of them still in harness
The man who drove them had dice
of heat stroke. and the animals hat
shared his fate.
Passing across by the ravine above
mentioned Mr. Chapman and hi.
companions found themselves il
/ the Panamint valley, which is mucl
like Death Valley. in its general as
| pect, with no vegetation except