Wealth of the Worlds Waste Places and Oceania | Page 4

rims, the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountain ranges, are about two
miles high. Now, these lofty ranges wring almost every drop of

moisture from the rain-bearing winds of the Pacific Ocean, leaving
them too dry to shed any moisture over the eastern half of the United
States. Because of this great mountain barrier, the winds that bring rain
and bountiful crops to the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic slope,
follow an easier passage, flowing directly from the Gulf of Mexico and
the Caribbean Sea. And the copious rains are the chief wealth of this
midland region.
But the arid western highland possesses a great wealth of its own--a
wealth whose influence is world-wide, for it is one of the world's chief
storehouses of gold, silver, and copper. Gold and silver are the
mediums of commercial transactions, and copper is the chief medium
for the transmission of electric power. These metals, therefore, are quite
as necessary as are iron and steel. Moreover, this great waste, a
seeming incubus on the face of the earth, is each year disclosing more
and more of its mineral and agricultural wealth.
Gold is the most widely disseminated of all metals, and is said to be
where you find it. That this statement is true has been demonstrated
many times, especially during the last few decades. In the north it has
been found in the frozen ground of Alaska and Siberia, in the south in
the sands on the surf-beaten shores of Tierra del Fuego and in the reefs
of the Transvaal, while it is found in numerous places lying between
these extremes.
The vast tract of land in the western part of the United States whence
most of these metals are obtained has been the scene of many tragedies.
It is an inhospitable region, scanty in both animal and vegetable life,
where climatic conditions call for heroic daring on the part of those
who would search out its hidden mysteries; it is a land of death-dealing
mirages, yet containing untold wealth for the miner, and likewise for
the husbandman who can irrigate the fallow parched surface.
[Illustration: Mohave Desert, California. Buzzards' Roost]
The bold prospector has unearthed in many places of southern Nevada
gold-bearing rock assaying thousands of dollars to the ton, the result
being the building up of cities and towns and the construction of

connecting railroads to meet the demands of the growing commerce.
Until recently, silver was the principal metal sought and found in the
State of Nevada; but now gold is king, and his throne has been shifted
from one desert camp to another, each laying claim to his abundant
presence, while new claimants are ever bringing new treasures into
light.
The two most valuable deposits of the precious metals now known in
Nevada are at Tonopah and Goldfield, the discovery of the first having
been made in 1901 and of the latter in the following year. Some of the
Goldfield ore has assayed as high as thirty thousand dollars per ton, and
so rich were many of its ores that they were sacked and carefully
guarded until landed at the reduction works. In one year and a half from
the discovery of gold at Goldfield the output reached four million
dollars.
These mines of the Nevada deserts excel in the richness and abundance
of their ores, while in the future these camps bid fair to outrival in
development all other sections of the United States. A few years ago
the southern part of the Silver State was considered utterly worthless
and a region to be shunned like a charnel-house, on account of its
barren and dangerous character. Now it is the Mecca of the gold-seeker.
These mines have already made many a poor man wealthy and many a
wealthy man a millionaire. Each hillock, ledge, or ravine holds a
possible fortune, and no hardship and peril is too great for the
prospector lured by the hope of a rich find. The prosperous desert
mining town, first built of canvas and rough lumber, is soon replaced
by a better class of buildings, and water is brought through long miles
of pipe from the nearest available source. Anon, electric-lighting and
other modern conveniences are added, thereby making life more
tolerable in a fierce climate of heat and cold, of fiercer winds and
blinding dust.
Not only is gold found in these desert wastes, but borax, nitre, sulphur,
silver, salt, soda, opals, garnets, turquoises, onyx, and marble form a
part of its resources. Rich gold mines have built the towns of
Randsburg and Johannesburg in the midst of the Mohave desert, while

finds of rich ore made elsewhere are of frequent occurrence. It is
thought that in the near future sufficient nitre can be obtained from the
deserts of California and Nevada to render the