Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1891 — A STRANGE LAKE. [ARTICLE]

A STRANGE LAKE.

Nature Forms a Vast Laks in a Sandy Dasert. Old Dry Lake Bisln, the LHtle California Sahara, Flooded with 360 Sq. Mlles of Water One to Fourteen Feet Deep. A dispatch from Los Angeles, Cal., o» the 3d, says: There is no improvement oi affairs in Saltan. The water in the lak« is rising, but no special uneasiness is fell by the railroad people. Owing to the almost unbearable heat it is impossible u get any white man to venture on the desert at this time of the year. This is such an out-of-the-way spot, so out of touch withall that can be called life, that even birds of the air avoid the desolate marsh. Even coyotes slink terrified from the great, mysterious white fringe, whiehjike a hug* Ice-pack, glitters and glistens under th* rayspf the sun that almost heats to redness iron tools exposed to it. Imagine heal so fierce that if one stood immovable.without clothing, water would run from him as if he weie undei a douche; imagine heat sc fierce that it is necessary to keep watei bottles continually to one’s mouth, and that if the water were not immediately forthcoming your tongue would cleave to your mouth, your lips w’ould b« swollen, veins in your face and neck stand out as if varicosed. All that one craves is water for the throat to cool the warmth oi the body, which is fanned to intolerable heat by wind as warm as the famous winds of northwest India, and as violent as that which blows along the northern coasts of Africa. The Southern Pacific railroad company has sent out its engineering party to investigate the flow and discover, if possible, the real inlet. The nwOod pwii H that marked on geographical maps at “Old'Dry Lake.” The water now is estimated to lie thirty miles long by twelve wide, with an average depth of twentyone inches in Old Dry lake basin. The stream that feeds itruns at tho rate of sou r and one-half mites per hour. The Southern Pacific engineers have discovered that tho water rushed to tho‘ Sal ton underground passage beneath a low range ol hills that separates the sink of the Colorado desert from Salton. The railroad people at present, however, have-no fear of the track overflowing, as evaporation is so rapid on the desert that that alone would keep down the water unless it came in more rapidly than it now does. The Indian runner sent by the railroad people has not yet returned, and the boat sent out from Salton has only been able to get a short distance. A telegram received from a courier says: “A strong wind Tuesday night from the southeast raised the water on the north shore. The west water line is moving westward slowly. I cannot reach the end of the track, and I fear the track will go with the next strong wind. The waters are surely but slowly rising. The saturation is 16 per cent, fresher than on Tuesday. That the water comes from the Colorado •Iyer, which it leaves at a point near Pilot Knob, there is little doubt.” Another dispatch sayss The water around Salton is now within 2,000 feet of the main track. It came in 200 feet in two hours yesterday. If it continues to come in as it has been doing it will wash out the Southern Pacific track? in three days. The deepest water found was three feet and the shallowest in the current, fourteen Inches. The Indians are badly scared, and all the desert Indians have fled to the hills, and even those as high up as Banning are leaving for the mountains. A week ago a medicineman came to the Banning reservation and the Indians that the Messiah said there would be a big flood by July 4; that all the whites would be swept avay and only Indians saved. Ho said that lldians who worked up to July 4would not have tlSie to get away. All Indians are much excited, and even the most intelligent ones are going to Gray back with their families.