pectors say that Death
Valley is the best watered of all the desert valleys. Since it is
the lowest spot in all the surrounding country, the scanty water
supply all flows toward it. But the water runs under the gravels
of the old river beds instead of on the top, where it might be
utilized. Occasionally, however, the water comes to the surface in
the form of springs, which are marked by a few willows or mesquite
trees and little patches of salt grass.

Long ago, when the rainfall was greater, Death Valley was a saline
lake and received a number of streams, two of which were large enough
to be called rivers. The Amargoza River, starting from Nevada and
pursuing a roundabout way, entered the southern end of the valley.
The Mohave River, which rises in the San Bernardino Range, also
emptied into the valley at one time, but now its waters, absorbed
by the thirsty air and by the sands, disappear in the sink of the
Mohave fifty miles to the south.

The summer is the dreaded season in Death Valley. A temperature
of one hundred and thirty-seven degrees has been reported by the
Pacific Coast Borax Company at the mouth of Furnace Creek. This
temperature was recorded in the shade, and is the hottest ever
experienced in the United States. In the sun it is of course much
hotter. Many a person has lost his life in trying to cross the
heated valley in the middle of a summer day instead of making the
journey at night.

[Illustration: FIG. 73.--ENTERING DEATH VALLEY]

Dangerous as this region is, even now when we know so much about
it, it was of course much more dangerous for the first white men
who entered it. Only those who have had some experience upon the
desert can realize the difficulties and dangers which beset the
first emigrants who attempted to cross the deserts lying between
Salt Lake City and the Sierra Nevada mountains. The story of the
sufferings and final escape of that party which, by taking the
wrong course, was lost in the great sink, is extremely interesting
although sad. The valley received its name from the experiences
of the members of this party.

In the latter part of 1849 many emigrants, who had reached Salt
Lake City too late in the season to take the usual route through
northern Nevada and over the Sierra Nevada mountains, decided that
rather than remain in the town all winter, they would follow the
south trail across southern Nevada to San Bernardino and Los Angeles.

A party of people finally collec