IN DEATH VALLEY.

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 3

IN DEATH VALLEY.

THE STRANGE AND WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES OF AN EXPLORER. (Say, Francisco Chronicle.) W. D. Barton, yrho for Borae time pasb has been at the head. of an exploring expedition through Death Valley, along the Amargosa river to Ash Meadows, the Charleston Mountains, and other almost unknown localities. in the wildest. parts of Inyo County, California, and Liucoln County, Nevada, returned home on July ae. •• Mr Barton's expedition was composed of six persons, all frontiersmen and proa- , pectors of many years* experience. They Went for a party of capitalists in this city, and indireotly for Professor Blake and others, who are how building the railroad from the noted Vanderbilt gold mines to Roche. Mr Barton tells ( A 6TB_LNGE AITD BBMAB I-ABIiX INTEBESTING. , S TOB Y ] ofthe curious resources of thiß far-away region. Dead men marked their pathway. , He says they discovered the dried-up , bodies of no less than five men, who long , Bince expired from thirst. There was : nothing on them to identify them, for like most men under, such circumstances they ■ had stripped themselves of their olothes ■ in their delirium. The few scattered - clothes they fonnd contained no clue as to ■ the identity of the dead. The country , they passed through was full of strange , mineral deposits, which, when the road is built, will be productive of great wealth. , Twenty-six • mUes of the road from The , Needles to Vanderbilt has already been ' built, and a contract has been let for ; building- eighty . miles farther toward , Pioche. About one hundred and sixty men , are at work on the extension now. The entire distance to build is one hundred , -and fifty miles. The route is vi& Vegas , ranch, the Perauegat valley, Cherry Creek , valley . aod Whits river. Mr Barton eatimates that the road oan be built for , lo,ooodol a mile. A MOtTNTAIN OP KAOLIN.. One of the strangest things Mr Barton and his party saw and examined was a mountain of kaolin at the mouth of the Amargosa river, in Inyo County. This is the material of whioh the finest chinaware .is made. It is a remarkably fine clay and very white. The mountain looked like a great chalk cone, and was about half a mile in circumference. "But there were many other things along the line of our route," Baid Mr Barton, " that challenged our attention and elicited our surprise. It is a country fnll of wonders, and you never get through being .surprised at what is being constantly revealed. NITBATB OP SODA DEPOSITS. "Up the Amargosa from the Kaolin mountain we came across great nitrate of soda deposits. So far as I have learned they are the only extensive ones in the United State 3. I located 160 acres of the nitrate while I was there that was as white as a snowbank. I sent specimens ' to New Tork for analysis and have since • receivod the returns. They chow that the ' beds run from 52 per cent to 65 per cent of pure nitrate of soda. The crust of the \ nitrate is from 4in to • 18in deep. How- ; ever, when the crust is taken ofi in any place it fills up again, the same as b_f ore, and in a marvellously short time. So for all practical purposes it may be said its. depth is unknown. Twenty-five -miles north £>? the nitrate beds, and on-up the Amargosa river, we came upon salt . mines bo strange that I do not believe there are ' any like them anywhere. Hamilton Disston, the saw manufacturer of Philadelphia, you .nay know, ownß a mountain' of ealt" on the Colorado river. But it is red salt, that is, it is mixed with other mineral matter, so as to colour it. Thiß .salt that I found, however, looks like the frozen waves of the ocean, and I never heard of it in such FANTASTIC BHAPES. It is almost white, and quite so in many places, but changes to ultramarine blue. The white in it looks like ocean surf. In the blazing sun it affects the eyes, and m a general way it takes the form of a crater, and there is a rift or gorge in it, in one place 180 ft deep. "All along the Amargosa river are innumerable minerals. There were the Baits of soda, borax, arsenic, gypsum, kaolin, nitrate of soda, and the finest quality of talc. In the deepest part of Death valley we' found a rook that looked for all the world, like an umbrella. It rose from a big flat rock, had a stem cix feet, high, while on top was a curious overhanging cupola. On top of the mountains between Death valley and th 6 Amargosa is A 'MINE OF TOPAZ. ; It is not the smoky topaz, but c'ear, and there is lots of it. One of our men collected a fruit-can full o. it. He afterwards, sold one choice piece for 14dols and another for 7dola. These were in the rough state. "In what is known as the Ash meadows in Lincoln county, Nevada,, we caw some strange sightß. Theße meadows cover about 200,000 acres. It is a curious soda and mineral salt region, and on it good grass grows through the white beds. Scrub ash trees grow also all about. These [ are the only kind of trees that do grow ) there. Now, in this queer valley are some queer holes they call HOBSB SOLES. They reach to underground rivers, and horses coming along over the plateau ; tometimes fall, into them. Th _t is the j reason for tho name. I say/ in one ] unusually- deep and wide hole, at a depth ' of some fifty feet, in the water, oome thing: that looked exactly like a tree. ■ It might \ave been a tree, or some fantastic mineral , urination. It was green in colour, even j to tbe branches. j "There is another Btrange thing about ihis valley. Cattle grazing over the sur- i bee do well for a time, but if they are j iwe tpo long tihe white mineral deposit/ 1

of the surface injures tbeir feet, giving them a sort of rheumatism or paralysis of the lower parts. As a result I have seen, I suppose, as many as fifteen or . twenty cattle grazing about on their kneas, which were worn through to the bone. These cattle never could be got out, of course,' but, strange to say.l have _een »me of them in pretty good condition. The Indians usually kill them and eat them. A MOUNTAIN OF ALUM. " Beyond Ash Meadows, iv jfche Charleston mountains, .fifteen miles to the north, we found a mountain of alum. It was as white and pure alum as ever you saw in a drag store. Put to the mouth it had the same taste. I also tried it in fire, and it spluttered and blisters were raised on it. Water affects alum", that is, melts or dissolves it, but fortunately there v- rarely any rain there. However, I saw one place where it had been struck ; by . a waterspout, and was worn, into «« deep gorge. "In the torrid Death Valley, where the thermometer rose to 140deg., I witnessed one black night a fierce electrical b torm. Two rows' of electricity, one from the north and the other from the 'south* seemed to meet, and there was the most fearful lightning, coupled •• with thunder, that could be conceived. It was lander than all the artillery of battle, and the valley WBs so light that you could pick up a pin anywhere. GRUESOME AND AWFUIi. "Except in Liucoln County, Nevada, whe_e for BQme distance ia a large area of fine agricultural land, the country is gruesome and awful in character. It is hot, rocky and cut up with defiles and queer dry river beds. lam not Breaking now of Death Valley proper, which is as level, as a floor. There are almost no wild animals, but there are two or three kinds of rattlesnakes, the sidewinder and some Gila monsters. "There are some big turtles, or land terrapins, on the desert, and they are about the only animal there that can stand off the little coyotes. When the terrapins see the coyotes they simply draw their heads and feet into the shell and close up, and Ihave seen the little coyotes standing around watching for them to come out. '« The- Amargosa river, ia usually, dry, and in some places it is eight miles wide. I have gone into camp at night along the Amargosa and in a few hours awakened and found the water waist deep owing to a sudden cloudburst. The cloudbursts are usually accompanied by a great roar* in 2'" ■ ■ ___■■—_————