The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 16, 1902, Page 14

14 - > THE SUNDAY CALL JFORNIA once more is the home of great wealth. Not of gold nor of silver nor yet of oil, but of nitre. Great mys- terious fields that make Chile Jook as though she had never quite known what the nitre business really was While its existence has caused a stampede and has thrilled the heart of every miner, it really is not a discovery, and, furthermore, it has been an open se- cret for mote than twenty years. As far back as 1885 the first locations were made by some desert ranchmen at the instiga- tion of a traveling chemist who chanced in that region hunting borax. Of the lo- cations all have been neglected and every lapsed, which merely goes to show how little importance was attached to the first discovery. Now and again Investigations have been made, but they have all been in the most superficial way, and the resuit is that but few people knew of and cared Jess whethep there was a particle of nitre in the State, or anywhere near it, for that matter. » The latest report, and officially firmed, has sent hosts of miners and prospectors hustling and bustling into what is commonly known as Death Val- ley, one of the most God-forsaken spots on the face of the great, green globe. Louts Aubury, State Mineralogist of California, who sent out an expedition under Professor Gilbert E. Balley, says decidedly and emphatically: *“It is not & poor man's country. The man who wants to make money like the Klondiker had better keep out of Death Valley.” One of the great disadvantages lies in the scarcity of water. The deposits that have been found are some 130 to 145 miles from Daggett, 110 to 130 from Randsburg and 4 to 70 from Ballarat. The extent of them is about twenty-five miles long and fifteen miles wide. Not a drop of water can be found in the con- vicinity of the nitre for thirty-five miles. See what that would mean to the poor miner who had gone into that region with his blankets and but little to keep body and soul together. Think of labor- ing all the day Jong in a heat that rivals Yum and Arizona. The people who have been there acknowledge that June, July and August are dangerous months to work that 1d they say casually ** the high winds that blow in the fall and epring may be trying to the unprotected traveler, but where houses exist they are easily avoided Where houses exist, to be sure. But as the chief trouble of the mining expedi- tion was caused from teuting and having ce to store supplies, that excuse is v likely to be appreciated. The fields are &0 far from the railroads thaj it is utterly impossible to visit them, even for a few days, without a large and very expensive outfit, for absolutely everything must be carried along. Bed- @ing, tenting and the like, not to mention food for both man and beast It makes no difference how extensive may be, without cabins for provisions cannot be carried for longer is to.be of must be made, tedious ney and an expensive one as well. All this might seem more cheerful it there was plenty of water. But thirty- five miles is the nearest point to the beds where it may be had. It does no good to sink shafts, for when it has been tried in desperation, forty-five feet has been yeached without the slightest evidence of moisture. The shafts are in nitre from the surface down. It requires a great outlay of cash to send out exploring expeditions, but many indiviGuals have started out for the val- jey, prepared to hold on to their claims or to see if anything is to be had. Hun- of miners are leaving their camps trusting to luck to at least find employ- ment that prove profitable. The re- glon of death, horror and mystery seems 0 bold no terror for them. For some time more than four hundred mer were waiting, at last accounts, for edvance prospectors, who were to return with information as to which portion of the terrible desert would be the best on which to make their rusk Again Mr. Aubury says: “I think, per- that while some of these men are guing for themselves, as there are al- ways some fearless daredevils, the great majority of them are going in for the American Nitre Company, which has bought up great Lracts of the land and which is going to open the land up and make it a great thing—sumething that will probably make California the great nderment again. e country is too dusoiate, too terri- fying, oo maddening 10 appear inviting, but there doubtless is money there and in great plenty. Just how much remains to as the difficulties in sampling the are hardly Lo be appreciated un- less one has seen the country. The way the fields have been described bas conveyed the idea that immense for- tunes are to be easily got from the beds and that they far surpass Chile, which is practically the only p.ace that provides nitre for this hemisphere. Of course, the real range of California’s de- posit is not really known, as but vecy little intelligent prospecting appears to bave beeri done. The immense hills were sampled in a way. but the expiorers were handicapped by lack of time and means &nd the true extent of them s yet to be seen. “Nearly all the nitre beds,” sald Pro- fessor Bailey in speaking of his investi- gations, “so far gs discovered, are sit- vated in the northern part of San Bernardino County, and extend across the boundary line into the southern part of Inyo County. They are found along the shore lines, or old beaches, that mark the boundary of Death Valley as it was dur- ing the Bocene times. The few outlying beds so far discovered are also located ®iong the beach line of some one of the uumerous lakes that were formed by the @rying up of Lake Aubury. “in order to form some idea of the THE SAITLL OW (REEFI RANCH. possible value of the fields one way, con- sider the caliche alone for a minute. The caliche, it may be explained, is the crude nitrate of soda and this lies in beds from six to twelve feet thick. “Until recently the whole value of these nitre hills was supposed to lie in the sur- face coating, for when the top scale a few inches in depth was shoveled off or even pushed white with ine were exposed. This top coating is unique, and the Spanish name ‘caliche,” borrowed from the Chil- eans, is most convenient for describing the top coating as distinct from the stratl- fled layers. ‘The caliche-of the nitre beds is a for- mation of considerable thickness and vol- ume, a few inches or a few feet, beneath the 'surface of the terrace deposits of Death Valley, as it existed in ages past. ‘The surface of this top crust or layer is comparatively smooth, giving a soft, rounded appearance to the hills into which the anclent terraces have been worn by erosion. “Now, again, the minimum thickness of the surface nitre is six mches. One acre *21,780 cubic feet. of ground contains 43,560 square fect. This, at six Inches In depth Is equal to This at seventy pounds Per cubic foot amounts to 1,524.600 pounds Der ‘acre, or 760 tons per acre—say 730 tons; 30,000 acres, allowing 35.000 acres to be rejected, at 750 tons, amounts to 22 000,000 tons. “In some places the caliche is known to be from three to five feet in depth and the average of the coating of the high hills is considerable more than if the ground were level, as In the foregoing figures. ““When it s remembered that some of the strata from three to ten feet In thick- ness have been found to contain values from fifteen to forty per cent of nitre it will be seen that the quantities are sufficient to attract the attention of the largest capitalists and to lead to thelr full exploration and development.” Calculating from the data furnished by Professor Balley, prospectors have figured out that millions and millions of dollars of nitre are in plain sight and all that one has to do Is to calmly pick it up. Taken ordinarily, this means that in Death Val- NG ™ RNITRE BED AN Ny \ ZrDs. [N ley there are immense deposits worth . billlons of good American dollars. The greafer part of the claims are taken up by The American Nitre Company, but “Borax Smith,” Lord Humphreys and Mr. Singleton, a millionaire, are the cap- italists who have taken the greatest in- terest in this discovery, but, as yet, they have not made claims. Nearly 100 men have been sent into Death Valley by “Borax King Smith” and Lord Humph- reys. The expense attached to their op- erations now under way will be in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars. Professor Balley accounts for the fact that while nitre has been known to ex- ist, the difficulty in obtalning accurate analyses was a decided drawback 144 these clews had been carefully examined and looked into, these beds would have been the scene of great activity long ago. There is a commercial importance in the similarity which the professor has found to exist between the nitre beds of California and those of Chile. Some of the polnts may be summarized as fol- lows. 1—Both occur only in the typical hot, rainless desert portions of their countries. 2-Both occur In beds where the nitre is associated with gypsum, common sat, glauber salt, sylphate of magnesia, etc. 3-Both are found on the margin of dried up sea bottoms, or the residuum of evaporated oceans. 4—The Chile beds occur “on the sides of ravines and in the hollows of the foot- hills” and “along the edge of the foot- hills.” Those of Death Valley are found in ravines, in the hollows of the foothills and in the old terraces that marked the former shores of Lake Aubury. 5—The deposits of nitre are interrupted in both countries by deposits of salt, borax, borate of lime, soda, etc. 6—The nitre beds of Chile are described as varying In breadth, the “average be- ing 1500 feet,” and also as varying In thickness. In California the beds run from 1500 feet to over two miles in width, and from three to over six miles in length. 7—In both Chile and California the ca- liche varfes widely in depth, even in spots close to each other, running from a few inches to several feet. 8-In both countries “spots” are found to be very pure. 8—In Chile the beds are covered with a crust called costra, that is very hard. This costra Is composed of the debris of earthy matters cemented together into a conglomerate that contalns sand, salt, gypsum and other salines. In California the beds have a costra of sand, salt, gypsum, etc.; it is not hard, but soft—so soft and friable, in fact, that one sinks iuto it to his ankles. In Chile the costra bas to be blasted, while in California it could be removed with a scraper. 10—In both lands there are often layers of boric acld compounds. 11—The colors of the caliche in Chile are yellow, pink and green. The creamy yel- low is the malin characteristic of the Cal- ifornia beds, but the pink and green are also present. 12—No nitre strata are found below the caliche in Chile, while In California ni- trates have been found In more than one of the alternating strata of the terraces. 13—In Chile the only nitrate found n commercial quantities is the caliche, or nitrate of sodium. In the California beds other nitrates have been found as well as the nitrate of sodlum that promise to be of commercial importance. These are now being investigated. 14—In brief, the nitre of both countries was formed under the same geological conditions and on the same huge scale. The chemistry of each is practically the same. In both countries the nitre is a peculiar and unique product of their great desert regions. The chance for great profits in Califor- nia nifre is found in the export duty of Chile. Nitre enters this country free, but the export duties in Chile in the perfod from 1873 to 1892 amounted to $155,696,664, and the total value of the export between and Inclusive of those dates is given at $337,182,599. Professor Bafley, in describing the re- gion of this newly found vast wealth, gave a vivid picturs of the mysterious desert into which so many peopie are now rushing with the hope of obtainirig some part of the riches to be so easily found there. “If nature has been wunkind ways in the desert,” he says, been lavish with her gifts in others. the valleys look forbidding, yellow with sand and greasewood, spotted with dis- mal black lava buttes, yet they are brightened with beds of soda, salt and borax, that gleam snow-white to the eye or turn to mirage lakes, with dancing waters and leafy borders. “Every peak, face, ledge, gorge and stratum has a color of its own, while no two breadths of color are exactly alike. They vary from pure marble white to lava black, from palest green to darkest car- mine, from delicate cream to royal pur- ple. Brilllancy and dullness of color are all mingled, contrasted and blended in magnificent masses that defy description. “It is the land of the paradox; a verita- ble desert, yet fllled witn an abundance of riches: a region of death, yet for one half of the year one of the healthiest places on the continent; a place where the temperature may jump from 120 de- grees in the shade to 40 below zero dufing the year; where the average rainfall is nil, yet cloudbursts rip out the sides of the mountains and change the face of na- ture in an hour. “It is a place where lakes are found on pointed peaks of the mountains; where the rivers preserve their existence only by concealment ‘under the gravels, coming te the surface only when forced to do so by some rocky barrier, so that the bottoms of the rivers are on top and one cuts his ‘wood by digging Into the sand with pick and shovel. “It Is an arid land, where men have dled from unslaked thirst éven with full can- teens in their hands. It Is known as a waterless desert, yet Its springs are the favorite stopping places of * migrating ducks and geese. The ranges and the plains between them are absolute deserts, treeless and devold of water, yet at many of \the springs where there Is water enough to Irrigate the land ranches.have been established that are veritable ocases, delighting the eye of the weary traveler and furnishing him with new supplies of fruit, vegetables and hay.” Professor Bailey says that the size of the hills of nitre varies from only fifty feet high and covering only two or three acres to those 300 or more in height and covering nearly a section of land. The consumption of nitre, or saltpeter, as it is often called, has Increased. by leaps and bounds during recent years. It is used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid and nitric acid and in powerful ex- plosivés and fireworks. It is a powerful adjunct in the development of electrical energy, and the discovery of these new vast deposits will undoubtedly be greatly effective in cheapening electrical power, as well as in lending impetus to the ad- vancement of various scientific and chem- fcal Industries. —_ So great has be d for the firs ‘he Octopus,” The Sunday Call Iast Sunday, November 9, that edition is already nearly exhausted. If you mivsed this first namber, published Sunday. for ‘i'he Sumday Call of t 'duue at once or you will be toe te. “Fhe Octopus” was writtem by the late Frank Norris. It is Mr. Norris’ sirongest novel. It has justly been conaider- ed the nearest approach to the wgreat American mnovel” ever written. It portrays life and ecenen in California more vividly thanm in some “she has 1t a other book extant. is mow running in The Sanday n. No extra charze! And by this means you read the best movel I of the day—FREE