The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1922-06-03
John B.S|ater Tells
About California
Writes of the Wonders of
the MOjave Desert and
of Animal Life

Ell Centre, Cal, May 24.-Dear Ex-
aminer: "The wonders of the Mo
jave desert" has been a Turing
theme for the naturalist for ages.
The Mojave pronounced Mo-hah-va)
desert includes that part of the great
Colorado desert lying west of the
Colorado river. My early impression,
gained from the old biographies
which found favor in the schools
half century ago, was that a desert
was field of drifting sand | am
convinced of error because here is
a desert not of shifting surfaces,
but of high and difficult mountains
that seem to leap in jagged spires
almost into the sky, of plains cut
across for miles and miles by dang
erous chasms of defying depths, of
spreads of spiny growths almost i'm
possible of exploration and of arid
indentures that sag deep below sea
level. The summer heat in the low
lands is almost uncomfortable, and
the cold in the great attitudes vies
in rigor with that of the arcticsA
Human industry is sustained art-
ficially, there being no local issue
of moisture worth mentioning in the
entire region. Animal life and vege-
tation of strange and interesting
habits grow out of physical con-
ditions that have continued for un-
told centuries here. Nevertheless it
is the habitat of the grizzly bear, of
ferocious lions, of the bowling wolf,
of birds of song and prey, groping
tortoises, poisonous insects, lizards
and venomous serpents.
We are wont to speak of the mys-
terious vastness of the ocean, but in
point of mystery the waters of the
sea are not more appalling to the
human imagery of the vaults Of
nature than the desert solitudes of
the great southwest. 1t would seem
that birds, beast and reptiles, fleeing
from their human enemies, had at
last found a safe refuge in these
desert wastes, and had lived to-
gether in peace, harmony and con-
tentment, in country where their
archenemy would not break in and
dispute their right of possession; but,
alas!
The country is volcanic in general
formation. Salton sea, for centuries
a dry basin of desert sand reaching
nearly 300 feet below sea level,
filled by a deluge from the Colorado
river following the Imperial irriga-
tion system some ten years ago, is
now a body of salt water with a
length of 60 miles and 10 to 20
miles broad, the surface of which
is approximately 100 feet below
zero of altitude. On an island of this
dead sea of America are salt springs,
hot water springs and alkaline
steam fissures. Mud geysers, a
scientific wonder, issue here and oc-
cur over the low area from the
north extremity of the sea south
ward nearly 100 miles to the gulf
of California. Some of these unique
occurrences are quite active, craters
being blown out 100 feet deep with
a width of city street at the sur
face; slowly then the mud oozes un-
til the void is filled to the brim. In
other places the pressure simply
heaves the surface in a throb, like
a slowly raising bubble in pot OF
boiling mush. These strange freaks
of nature are so indiscriminate in
location that they may raise under
a paved public road or under city
block. An issue of gas with con-
siderable heat sometimes follows the
explosion and continues agitation OF
the mud until it solidifies. l have
never seen an explanation of this
phenomenon which is of deep concern
to the geologists, but a peculiarly