The mystic mid-region, the deserts of the Southwest . filled withsolutions of a multitude of mineral drugs suchas were never brewed in chemists laboratory. In Death Valley thirty thousand acres ofborax, niter, soda, and salt deposits haye beenlocated. The valley is literally a vast chemi-cal laboratory where Nature has compoundedand stored drugs by the millions of tons. Itis the druof store of the universe. There are several different forms in whichborax occurs in nature. It is found in solu-tion in some of the lakes and pools, fromwhich it is obtained by evaporation ; in saltsor crystals know
The mystic mid-region, the deserts of the Southwest . filled withsolutions of a multitude of mineral drugs suchas were never brewed in chemists laboratory. In Death Valley thirty thousand acres ofborax, niter, soda, and salt deposits haye beenlocated. The valley is literally a vast chemi-cal laboratory where Nature has compoundedand stored drugs by the millions of tons. Itis the druof store of the universe. There are several different forms in whichborax occurs in nature. It is found in solu-tion in some of the lakes and pools, fromwhich it is obtained by evaporation ; in saltsor crystals known as boreat, which require noother treatment than to be dissolved in vatsof boiling water and then allowed to crystallizeagain, and it is found in the form of cottonballs, as the round masses of ulexite arecalled, masses varying in size from a rifle-ballto a bushel basket. The finest borax on themarket is made from the cotton balls, when broken, are fibrous andwoolly in appearance, hence the name. When it was discovered that the real de-. Desert Borax Mines 149 posits of borax lie beneath the surface de-posits, a genuine borax mine was located anddeveloped at what is now known as Boreat,twelve miles north of Dag^ett, on the line ofthe Santa Fe railroad, where the reductionworks are situated. The wonderful richnessof this deposit has led to further explorations,and the remarkable finds in Death Valley haveresulted. When brouo^ht to the works at Daggett, thelumps of borax are fed into the mammoth ironjaws of a crusher which breaks them into lunipsof an uniform size about the bigness of theaverage chestnut. These lumps are fed tothe grinder, whicli reduces them to powder,and the powder, in turn, is passed throughrollers like those used in the manufacture ofthe finest grades of wheat flour. From theserollers it comes fortli as fine as the product ofthe wheat from which our most choice bread ismade. Then it is mixed with carbonate ofsoda, which is mined in Death Valley,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdeserts, bookyear1904
