A Deadly Occupation

The deadliest occupation for men or horses is teaming in the borax fielde of Death Valley of the ?reat American desert. There tht ongest teams in the world are employed. Scientists declare that the flerce heat in this narrow rent in the cracked surface of the earth is not equaled elsewhere in the world. Where the thermometer often registers 140 degrees of heat, imrelieved by even a breath of air; where men sleep at night in hollow ditches flllèd with water in order to avoid dying from collapse, the necessity for the longest teams of mules and borses ever harnessed to draw the great borax-laden wagons is apparent. The desert team is the longest in the world, and the percentage of deaths among the horses is greater than that of domestic animáis used in any other calling. For! ty to slxty horses are often hitched to one of the lumbering vehicles in which the borax is slowly dragged acrosa the sun baked alkali plains. The average life of even the sturdiest horses used in this work is six months, for in ihis length of time they either become broken winded, consumptive from inhaling the deadiy dust of the desert or are driven crazy by the frightful heat. A man tbere, though protected by the wagon awnings from the sun'a raye, can not go an hour without water without danger of death. When a team breaks down and the water supply becomes depleted, the men ride a top speed for the nearest source ei supply, and often when they return they find that the remaining horses made mad by thirst, have broken from the harness and dashed off, only to find death in the desert. The borax wagons weigh 8,000 pounds, and carry 20,000 pounds at a load. Behind each wagon is a tank containing hundreds of gallons of water. The horsee are harnessed in pairs, the trained ones in the lead, and the next in intelligence just ahead of the tongue, while the unruly and the youngsters are hitched between. The nigh leader has a bridle with the strap from the left jaw shorter than the other, and from the bridle uns a braided rope which the driver, perched on the wagon seat, holds in his right hand. The rope is called the 'jerk line," and is a little longer than he team, which stretches out several ïundred feet in front of the wagon. )uring he buey season the borax Wagons make au almost continuous train, and the horses alone, if placed in single file, would make a team more ;han 100 miles long. Besides a littlo food and water, the poor animáis get no care. They curry themselves by rolling in the bu.-ning sand. After a few months of the killing labor the poor creatures become unflt for service. A kindly rifle ball then ends their agony, and their emaciated carcaases are left alongside the trail to furnieh ecant picking for the hovering vulture.