TO PiNON WELL 139 



weak from hunger as well, drank too freely and suc- 

 cumbed to the excess, which, likely enough, was 

 rendered more dangerous by the unwholesome sub- 

 stances often found in the water of these desert 

 springs. (It is a common experience to find one's 

 expected water-supply contaminated with dead coy- 

 otes, foxes, birds, or snakes, and water-holes that 

 are seldom visited, and therefore seldom cleaned 

 out, may become poisonous even from decaying 

 vegetable matter.) I have not the means of giving 

 a personal opinion, but one knows the hold that 

 poison legends, like those of lost mines and buried 

 treasure, take on popular imagination: and prospec- 

 tors as a class are notoriously open to any touch of 

 mystery or superstition. 



I found my companion infected on this subject. 

 On leaving our last camp I had filled my canteens, 

 using water that had been boiled to prevent ill effects 

 from dead bees. Emmons had no particular objec- 

 tion to decaying bees, but warned me gravely that 

 there was arsenic in the water. He had found it poi- 

 sonous himself, he said; but when I asked how he 

 knew that it was arsenic that had upset him, he 

 replied that every one knew there were arsenic 

 springs on the desert, and he figured that this must 

 be one of them . However, I reckoned that if a horse 

 could take several gallons at a draught without any 

 bad effect, I ought to be good for a mouthful now 

 and then: so I drank, at first carefully, then freely, 

 and noticed only that the supposed arsenic left lips 

 and throat gummy, so that there was an inclination 

 to drink almost constantly. 



