The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 18, 1896, Page 23

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1896. 28 . - SOME OF THE MARVELS OF NATURE IN COCOPAH LAND There are more marvelous things to the square mile iu the couniry Iving forty-five es southwest of Yuma and 125 miles southeast of San Diego than in all the West. That is what prospectors and others say who have been in that section of Lower California, for it is just below the boundary-line dividing the United States from Mexican territory. There are those who say that not even the Yellowstone Yark can show such strange sights as this part of the desert lying adjacent to the Cocopah Mountains. Some day in the not distant future - capitalists wiil make a great resort here in the Cocopah region, and their guests will include the lame, the halt and thebiind, a3 well as the tourists on pleasure bent. The former will go to bathe in the mud springs, which are impregnated with various strong minerals; to lave in the clear hot springs or the ice-cold springs and to breathe tbe rare atmosphere of the balmy desert. Wonderfu! cures have been effected by these mud springs and the waters near by. Men have gone from Yuma to San Diego on cots in the beds of wagons, suffering all the tortures of rheumatism, and in a few weeks come back to their friends apparently well and increased in flesh. But the strangest thing about the Coco- yab region, however, 1s the presence of so many mud volcanoes., Within an area of 2 few miles there are hundreds of spout- ing and fuming volcanoes, throwing black mud to a height of ten or twenty feet and keeping up an incessant sputtering that sounds like the rattle of musketry. Some of the tiny craters are never still, while others are inactive for weeks and then be- come-doubly active again. Down in the depths of the earth a dull rumbling, inces- sant and terrifying, is always heard, and the surface of the ground for a great dis- tance around the volcanoes is hot and bar- ren of all semblance of vezetation. A lake of black water, black as ink, and called by the Indians Big Medicine Lake, lies near the volcanoes. Its depth bas never been ascertained by either the In- dians or the white men familiar with the region, and the body of wateris believed to be unfathomable. No living thing in- habits the water, although it covers an area of three by one and a half mijes. It isthe source of the stream known as Hardy’'s Colorado River, which empties into the Colorado below Yuma. Thisisa sluggish stream and very tortuous, the distance to the Colorado by its winding course being about 125 miles, while by wagon the aistance is only sixty miles. The voleano region is on the highest part of the desert between San Diego and Yuma. The waterin that locality comes from the Colorado about twenty miles be- low Yuma, forming a branch carrying about one-fourth of the Colorado. This branch empties into a large natural reser- voir almost exactly in the center of the desert and about twenty miles square. Aiter the reservoir fills the water flows north, south and west to all parts of the desert, constituting one of the most complete natural irrigation systems in the world. All the land embraced in the volcano region 1s owned by Don Guillermo Andrade, whose possessions sre said to amount to several million acres in Lower California and Sonora, { creeks, lakes and rivers abound in the volcano region, and when the local- ity becomes known it will become noted for its production of tropical fruits, for the temperature is high here almost all the year rounda. Horses and mules, moved by instinct, can only with the greatest ditficulty be made to go near the volcanoes, and they tread lightly and sniff the air suspiciousiy all the time they are forced to remain any- where near. They seem to be afraid of breaking through the crust of earth that separates them from the infernal regions underneath. Men, more foolhardy and venturesome, go. to the edge of the spout- ing craters, dip their hands in the strong mineral springs and taste everything in sight. The tides of the Guif of California are perceptible forty miles up the Hardy River toward the volcano region. The river hugs the moun- tains known as the Cocopah range, very rocky and barren hills. These moun= tains have become somewhat noted as a result of the stories concerning rich dis- coveries of placer dig- gings in the bot canyons, but men who know the region say that the diffi- culties of mining there make it a pre- carious calling. The few prospectors al- ways to be found in the mountains are compelled to bring water for drinking purposes a di-tance of ten miles, and all dirt from the placers bas to bedry-washed. A marvel of the Cocopeh ~ region is the carcass of a wha'e 100 feet long that lies in a badly decom- posed condition on the bank of Hardy River, a few miles below the voicanoes and Black Lake. A party of tourists who visited the region a few weeks ago under the guidance of Luman H. Gaskill, who is familiar with all the d 'sert and moun- tain region of Lower California, came upon this carcass of a whale and were con- siderably astonisbed. Almost anythingin the animal kingdom might have besn ex- pected in the region of mud volcanoes ex- cept a whale, The question naturally arose, Where did this whale come from? The common on the Mexican mainland. Springs, g3, California gray whale averages about forty-five feet in length, and this leviathan was twice that size. Professor Welch, a scientist who was with the party, could in no manner account for the presence of the whale so far from the gulf or ocean. If it came from the gulf up the Hardy River the whale was evidently an overgrown specimen of the gray species, or it one of the sperm family it had evidently come into this mysterions part of the world through subterranean passages. The Black Lake at the volcanoes is said to be unfathomable, and the Indians as well as intelligent white men believe that it is connected by an underground passage with the ocean. Ifa whale should make that passace it would be scalded to death in the volcanoes and thrown up into the stream that runs directly into Hardy River. All around the carcass in the sand at the edge of the river oil stands in great | pools. | Tue Cocopah Indians, who inhabit that part of the country, are a small tribe in number, but they are'large in stature and well developed, but ignorant. They are disposed to be peaceable to the whites, but allow no other Indians to squatl on their territory. Prospectors bave said that the Cocopahs resemble other tribes in the amount of clothing they can get along without. But on occasions the Cocopahs can array themselves in seemly garments and unseemly paint !mtil they appear quite stylish, from their own standpoint, at least. They exhibit corsiderable pride when visitors go among them and hasten to don the best clothes they have, realiz- ing that a better impression is to be mads on their guests by a show of garments than could possibly be made with the naked form or with nothing but the sim- vle breech-clout. A Cocopah buck possessed of a red shirt and pair of overalls is classed as a dude among his jealous associates. Often, however, the dude of to-day is the bare- skinned buck of to-morrow, for the vice of gambling is prevalent among them to an amazing degree, and nothing is too sacred to be withheld from the jackpot, except beads. The Indian of the Cocopah tribe wio does not own one or more strings of beads is poor indeed and liable to be regarded by his friends as “loose in the upperstory.” Intheirnose, in their ears, or around their wrists or ankles beads are always to be seen. Some of the young COCOPAH INDIANS CELEBRATING THE FEARAST OF GOOD CROPS. fellows frequently have four or five pounds of beada on their bodies, and he who exhibits the greatest quantity is mightily respected by the young women of tie tribe, no matter what his natural attri- butes. Both men and women in the Cocopah tribe ara very fond of painting their taces in all imaginabie colors. Black, red, blue and yellow are the colors most frequently used, and the combinations effected by a \ free use of these paints stamp the Coco- pahs as leaders of this branchof art. The men wear their hair long and it is never cut, but the squaws crop their hair off just below their ears. A Cocopah buck is as careful of his locks, in his way, as is the most accomplished belle among the whites. A common practice among the Indians is to twist their hair upon the top of the head and plaster it oyer with blue mud or clay. Alfter several days the mud is exceedingly hard, and a week of con- stantsoaking isneces- sary to free the buck from his earthen sku!leap. Travelers in the Cocopah Mountains have often seen the redskins lying on a sandbar in the river, the backs of their heads resting in the water undergoing the soaking process. A prospector after wit- nessing a sight of this kind gave it as his opinion that the phrase *‘Go soak your head” originated with the Cocopahs. The long, slender bodiesof the Indians, prostratein the broil- ingsun at the water’s edge and lying asstill as deatn sugeests to the observer alliga- tors taking a sun bath. The scourge of flies ‘and mosquitoes is borne without a flinch until the mud is thoroughly soaked out and ¢he hair washed, when the thick hirsute mass presentsa very glossy appearance, Then the bucks twist it'by a laborious process into small rolls, the size of a forefinger in cir- \\. RN cumference. In this condition it is al- \\ lowed to hang down %}\ their backs. The \‘S young feliows, and the old ones, too, for that matter, hold their heads well back in order to allow their hair to fall straight down their backs. Their hair, too, is often adorned with plumes of the white heron, “or egret, wrapped with red yarn, and making a very conspicuous as well as valuable head-dress, for the ezret plumes bring $32 an ounce in the New York market. The Cocopah Indians believe that their hair has a great deal to do with their strength and agility, They are great runners, and often engage in long races over the desert. Some of the young bucks will strip off their clothing and orna- ments and make a ran of ten miles and return, the victorious racer to have all the clothes of his competitors. A quarrel among the youung fellows over some demsel is usually settled by a long race, and the winner returns to claim his dusky sweetheart. Sheis the sole judge of the contest, and from her decision there is no appeal, Sometimes, however, the bucks buy their wives outright, giving.a horse ora bianket to the parents of a girl, who submits to the transaction and makes a faithiul wife, The children of the tribe seldom have but one name and it is nearly always of local origin. It is a common custom to bestow upon a baby tne name of some product that is most bountiful at the time of the child’s birth. Thus there are many Pumpking, Watermelons, Tules, Rattles snakes, Coyotes and Pinones. A few Indians possess’ names picked up among the white men who have been among them. One bright young Cocopah, for in- stance, always gives his name as Horace Greeley; and an old fellow of the tribe, who has grown fat and lagy and sits by his tule hut all day smoking cigarettes, is known far and wide on the desert as Grover Cleveland. The more indusirious Cocopahs raise beans, corn, pumpkins and melons in abundance. The seed from the mesquite tree, a pod-like bean, is much relished by them. When it is crushed intoa meal and mixed with water it is called *‘pachety.” The natural resources of the country make living rather easy for the stalwart Coco- pabs. Wild hogs are numerous and fat all the year round, and the deer that abound there are of almost incredible size. Bucks of the blacktail variety weighing 300 pounds dressed are frequently kilied. Tneir bindquarters are so large that uunt~ ers’ eyes are made glad as well astheir ap~ petites. There are specimens of the burro deer in the Cocopah region. They are large and greatly resemble the moose, having flat horns. Tourists who occasionally visit the Cocopah country are hospitably enter- tained by the Indians—if the natives hap- ven to be ready for them. A party that recently went among them signified a pre- dilection for eggs, and forthwith two young bucks went a distance of thirty miles on horseback after the commodity, bringing them into camp safely in a little basket of tule made by themselves on the road. Hunters brought in game daily, two deer and other kinds of fresh meat often being in camp at the same time. Fish and small game were caugut in great abundance, and water fowl was slaugh- tered for the feathers. Fine skins were obtained from the white pelican or alba~ tross. Although the Cocopah Indians raise corn and melons in sufficient abundance to sustain them during seasons of drought, if any should occur, and during the long period in summer when the temperature is too high for the successful production of such/things, nature provides enough for the/Indians to feed upon. There are wild potatoes, tules, mesquite beans, wild rice, beans from ironwood, or pala fierro, beans from the greenwood, or pala verde, seeds from wild grasses and small bushes, besides fish and game and eggs from the haunts of the wild fowl along the Hardy River. FREDERIC BENNETT. The House That Jill Built How a Plucky Woman Gained a Comfortable Home on the Hillside at 2a Yery Small Cost «It’s the craziest thing you’ve thought of yet, and that’s saying & good deal.” “On the contrary it is perfectly reason- able, perfectly feasible and perfectly de- lightful to think ef.” “Think of it then to your neart’s con- tent, but rest contented with fhinking. Why, woman alive! You can’t build a house that would stand up over night.” “At any rate I propose to try.” A_na with this fixed determination in my mind 1 departed to gaze once more upon the coveted spot where, gemi-invalid and biue, 1 longed to pitch my tent and estab- lish & summer-house in solitude and peace, Truly it was a tempting spot, where one might well long to dwell. Just there a deep canyon widened, affording a vista of level valiey, broad fields, distant ocean and the nearer bay. A little above this par- ticular few feet of ground the wind blew hurricanes at times, a little below it the swirling breezes kept upa constant whist- ling and rustling as they gathered to sweep up the rayine, but just bere was aregion of calm, a swmall, particular thermal belt, 50 to speak, where no wind raged and no fog crept in. Two great live oaks nestled against the hill ana seated with my back against their trunks I spent the entire day feusting my eyes upon the glorious out- look and making plans, plans architec- tural and financial, The former were by far the easier to make and the pleasanter to contemplate., Toe latter were some- what obscured by the problem that would intrude itself: Given a bit of ground, a $10 gold piece and one pair of hands—to produce a bouse. I laid the cold piece figuratively against the side of the house I had in my mind’s eye. The ratio wasn’c even 16 to 1. But I knew I had zot to have that house and that I coula have no more meoney to put into it. “I shall build as big a house as I can for §10,” I said at last, “gnd content my self with it.” I sought a carpenter acquaintance and asked him about lumber measurements. He listenea to my story, chuckling in frank glee. Idid not mind that, however, for he set himself to work elaborately upon what be cailed thé “plans and specifications for my one-story frame dwelling.”” When he had finished, cal- culating down to the last screw in the last hinge, he told me Icould buildasnug, battened cottage 7x6 feet and 9 feet high on theridge for $9 65. “Then that shall be the size of my house,” I said, and gave him an order forthwith for tbe necessary lumber. “You'll have to excavate,” he had told me, so I *“‘excavated.”” The ground was not yet fully dried after the rainsand they told me it was soft. Perhaps they spoke the truth; I never yetstruck pickax into the proverbiai nether millstone, so I am not prepared to say t atthatrocky hillside is the hardest thing on earth. MNevertheless, after two days’ work with ick and hoe (I decided in favor of the \ ceeded to lay my sills. They were seven feet long and my five joists were isx feet. It was while I wassawing my joists that I learned the difference between a ripsaw and a crosscut-saw. You can make 2 neat job by sawing across grain with a ripsaw, but when you are working in 3x4 Oregon pine scantling the operation is attended by some fatigue. I laid my sills, support- ing the free ends on short pieces of scant- ling, well anchored on big, flat stones. That day I noticed that some builders at work on & down town building had tied their sills and supports by short strips of board, pailed crosswise to each, so I tied mine in a similar fashion. I mention this because “I can only allow you three-quarters.of a day this time,” said my carpenter ac- quaintance, when he saw me posting down the road. I was too tired even to smile at the sally, and I think he felt sorry for me. But next morning I arose rested and refreshed. My thumb was not even sore— not half so sore as the blisters on my palms, leit by the pick-handle. How I blessed the systematic exercise that had hardened my muscles, the long tramps and rides of earlier days that had given me a power to resist fatigue that not even in- validism could wholly destroy. I felt betterstill when, on applying the gauge, I found my floor to be perfectly plumb and THE HOUSE THAT JILL BUILT FOR $©.85. my carpenter friend, when he came to in- spect my work, gave a nod of astonished approval when he noted these ties. The estimate of $9 65 did not allow for “tongne and groove” floor boards, and my floor was of inch pine, roughly dressed on one side. This I sawed up into proper lengths and *‘toe-nailed” to the joists. Incident- ally, while thus engaged, I smashed my thumb, the only casualty connected with my building operations, ~1 aid not make any remarks when this occurred, but I sat down to think about it, and my thoughts 1§tter tool after throwing out two shovel- f of earth), I had excavated five feet into the hiilside and had a level space about 5x6 defined on two sides by an earth wall as high as my shoulder. Then 1 decided that my houss would stand if one side was propped on stilts, and I g were not complimentary to myself. I be- lieve I concluded that I was an idiot. At all events, I felt rather sick, and, as I had hit my thumb just as I was driving the last nail in my floor, 1 contluded to quit work for the day. perfectly level. That day I got up my corners, I nailed each pair of boards to- gether first, then set them erect at the cor- ners, resting each upon two nails driven in for the purpose, until I bad plumbed them and driven the last nail home. Then came the tug of war. It was one thing to make a plate, but quite another and different task to raise it. With all my strength I pulied at one side until it rested on the proper posts. Then I raised the other, but by no contrivance of strength or ingenuity could I keep itin place long enough to Jrive in a nail. The plate, let me explain to the unini- tiated, is the set of beams that run about the four sides of a building up where the roof joins the walls. My plate fell with a | crash when I went to drive auail into it, jeopardizing my toes. to say nothing of knocking itself out of plumb and making one cornerpost go into a terrible skew- wabble. 1 thought it all out and decided that my correct course was 1o go and fina a man to come and help me, What are men for if not to help women—new as well as old—out of their difficulties? So I sought out a clever craftsman, who came, as clever craftsmen always do when ap- pealed to, and together we raised that plate. He was very good, and only did what was absolutely necessary, respecting to the fullest my determination to do it all myself, but he gave me some yalnable aavice about running up my ridgepole, and when the plate was secured be stood contemplating my work with a smile which I promptlychallenged. *‘Oh, it’s all right,” be explained. “I wasonly smiling to think you did it,”” and I was-fain to ac- cept the explangtion. The next day I sawed my wall and roof boards into the proper lengths and found to my delight the right use of the ripsaw in filling in chinks. To put them in place was mere child’s play. Close beside the house grew the two great oaks that shel- tered me through so many restful nours. ‘While the house was built upon the ground the slope of the hill wassosteep thatthe up- per branches of these trees reached around ‘and over my httle building. 8o, screwing hinges upon the side nearest the trees I stayed and cross-stayed it, and then sawed out a large square, which, turned up ana securely hooked to the inside of the roof, leit a window that actually opened into the tree. On the side looking out toward the valley and the gatea window ran the whole broadside of the house, opening by the simple process of sliding one sash past the other. [ made my door of inch redwood, putting it up with two pairs of heavy strap-hinges, and then sawed it across so that the upper half swings open independently of the lower. My funds did not allow for locks and latches, so wooden buttons secured it. To batten walls and roof was an easy task, and at the end of a week my summer residence stood snug and tight ready for its furnishing, - The greater part of these were in. cluded in the estimate of $0 65. Across one end of its single room I built a pine beneh, six feet long by three feet wide. I covered the wall back of this and at the two ends with barley sacks, tacked se- curely and finished with & strip of lath all around. A mattress, with a cover of bar- ley sacks, made a comfortable couch, and within the curtained recess was endless storage-room. Above the couch I puta long shelf to hold a few dishes and some absolutely necessary books. A low stool, two small benches and a table, all made by me, constituted the rest of the furni- tore. The table and floor were covered, like the couch, with the ever useful barley sacks. Two curtained shelves in one cor- ner made a capital cupboard, and just outside the dcor, on a place leveled for the purpose, a rustic tripod held my camp- kettle in place over my kitchen fire. The benevolent old oak lent its sturdy sides to hold frying pans nnd. tins, never re- senting the pegs driven into its bark for that purpose, and clear, fresh water trickled, free as air, from a little spring just below. What more could heart de- sire? Companionship? In the early daysof my stay up there a small brown toad came to dwell with 10e. The place had been overrun with spiders before his aa- vent, but he cleared them all outand I knighted him, dubbing him the “Guardian of my private peace.” Birds came and nested in the oak trees, and after they de- cided thai I was quite harmless would even venture in through the open window and help themselves from my tabie. Once a ground-squirrel paid me a lengthy visit, and a stray jackrabbit made his l headquarters under the house until, fear- ing for its foundations, I drove him away. There were no tramps to molest or make afraid, and no creatures more formidable than cows and coyotes ever passed All about me were tall woods and deep canyons, inviting to tramps and explora- tion, with health, happiness and bene- diction to be had for the taking in each and all. On the whole, if there is a half-sick woman in San Francisco to-day, tired and worn with the incessant strain of city I ‘1 4 ey life, hardly knowing what to do with or for herself; if she is strong enough to bear solitude and is not possessed of more than the ordinary feminine timidity I can heartily recommend her to seek a lodge, if not in some vast wilderness, at least sufficiently “far from the madding erowd” to admit of aloneness and its attendant peace, there to dwell, and, in the quaint French phrase, **Make her eoul for a sea- son.” ¢ JILy GILLOTSON, A flash of lightding is often & mile long. Victor W. Nuttmann of Niles is, per- haps, the only builder in California whose h uses have, with one exception, all been destroyed by fire. The flames have fol- lowed his work over a period of thirty-five years and the only structure of his they have leit standing is the one he now oc- cupies himself. As it is the last one left he looks for it to go any moment. Few people outside of Niles know old “Nut,” as he is called, but everybody knows him down that way and gives him all the respect due the oldest inhabitant Pursued by the Fire Fiend A Man Who Went Fishing With Daniel Webster Has Very Poor Luck in Building Houses these things happened before he came to this part of the world, of course. Since coming here he hasn’t done much except build houses that burned down and grow oid. But he has done those things to pers fection. “I was the first American to settle in Niles,” said Nut when speaking of the matter. “That wasthirty-eightyearsago, and the only house here then was old Jesus Vallejo’s adobe flourmill that still stands right over there. It was I who started Niles, for I cpened the first saloon and provided a resting place for the ranchers who came to the mill. “But I was talking about tbe houses that burned. Well, the first house I built wasn’t the saloon, but a shanty I put up for myself. It wasa comfortable enough place, but in less than a month it was nothing but ashes. Don’: know how it caught fire. Weather was hot and the first thing I knewI didn’t have any house. Then I built this place that I now live in and, somehow, it still stands. It is the oldest house in Niles except the old mili, and I am the only one that ever lived in it. “Funny thing about the way all of my houses burned. They just went up like lightning. Nooody never had time to save noth ing out of them. “The first thing anybody knew the whole building was swathed in flames that roared and cracked like a blast furnace. Of course we all tried to put them out by carrying water from the crick in buckets and throwing it on the fire. But we might as well ’a’ used a tea- spoon for all the good we did. The houses just burned until they were all gone. “My old brain don’t work as good as it used to or I could tell you justexactly how I built the houses and how they “EVERY HOUSE | BUILD BURNS DOWRN.” and the oldest resident. Nut is a most pleasant man to meet and a good talker. He is also a good looking man and hasa head of white hair that would make the fortune of a Bishop and a set of whiskers that would assure him of the highest of- fice within the gift of the Populists. The 77 years that old Nut has spent on this earth have been most interesting and exciting ones to him. According to his own story he has done about everyihing caught fire. But Ican’t do it now. Ido know, though, that for a great many years the only houses in Niles were the ones that I built. *All of the houses I built after the first one stood a long time before any of them burned, My saloon burned down after I had it several years snd then the others commenced to go. The fires were a iong ti me apart, but they kept right up, The " first fire, as I said, was less than a month after I came here and the last was only & few weeks ago. That house hdd been moved, though, and chaneed considerable. Still it was a house that I built and I sup- pose it had to go like all the others. Not one of the houses I buiit in this town ever came to an end any other way except by being burned. “Am I afraid that this one will burn down like theothers? Well, Idon’t know. There are some things that I don’t under stand, like Darwin’s theory, for instance, and I don’t pretend to be able to explain them. This bouse is made of wood, like the others, and it is possible for it to burn. But it may not. Anyhow, I don’t care if itdoes. It has been a good house to me for a great many years, and I suppose I will not need it more than twenty or thirty years more at the most. If it has goat to burn, let her burn, There is nothing like baving a clean record. But the mnext there is to do, including falling in love and | house I bave [ will get. some one else to going fishing with Dsniel Webster, All] build for me.”