Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-03-19

| and Utah-an immense hollow or crater ex-
posing the very bowels of mother Earth, pure
| cold, where fresh water is the exception, and
hot boiling mineral water or salt saturations
are the rule, and none of its liquids drain or
flow to the ocean, the latter being hundreds
of miles off.
The aspects, slopes, hollows and basins
south of 3S degrees gradually dried up into
a number OF smaller basins, tapering down
into less diameters until they reached that
strange phenomena, the dry bed Of the wa
tiers, which flow westward to the southeast,
from the Carriso and San Felipe arroyos,
and which is 10 feet below the ocean level,
and is in 33 degrees or thereabouts near the
Mud Volcanoes of the desert of San Diego
county, not more than 60 miles from the
Gulf Of California. The conrulsions, shak-
ings, upheayalS, depressings, sinklngs and
general disturbances Of the Earth affected at
this period, most likely, all the most promi-
nent changes of local seas and Colorado lon
gitudes, and tossed off deluges into immense
waves eastward and westward, washing off
and out the friable and loose deposits
plowed with their torrents and currents every
thing not cemented into the very ribs and
framework of nature, and finally worked out
! the 300-mile trough or canal, and left behind
the Big Canon with its sides of perpendicular
OdSulllC .hduo vi ltVNO ~ O.OOV tSSb
high-that is, so you may look straight to the
bottom of those awful, profound, black prcci-
pices to foaming river, while the wayfarer
is dying with thirst and cannot find his way
down to lave his parching tongue in its re-
freshing waters, and the very air you
| breathe is alive with volcanic heats. Between
the southern rim Of the Great Basin to the
| Gulf head, and westward from the Colorado,
there is, from all the most recent accounts
and maps, very many small depressions,
| craters and hollows similar to the greater
northern one, the waters OF all OF which dry
off into arid beds or surfaces, from that of
Carisso to that OF the Dead Sea, which last
is 400 feet below the ocean, and opposite and
Immediately eastward Of the Owens lake,
in about 36 deg. 80 min., or on line with
Visalia.
We may here enumerate the principal Of
these basins for the better retention in the
memory, promising that their fellows Of
smaller capacities on the Pacific Slope
and in Mexico are like Keppeps comets, as
plentiful as fish in the sea:
|. The Great Basin of the Salt Lake Of
Utah, and of the river Humboldt Of Washoe,
containing
O. The basin of the fourteen Lagoons
within the Plateau OF Honey and Klamath
Lakes, from 40 deg. to 43 deg. inclusive, and
some 100 miles broad in longitude, some
times called the northern Plateau Of the ST.
ezra Nevada. 1t seems to be divided on the
east BY only the breadths of 10 or 20 miles Of
walls, and on the west abuts on the Cascade
Range of South Oregon, and is intensely
volcanic in all supertnes.
3. Pyramid lake, Carson lake, Walker
lake, and other collections Of water near the
! foot of the Sierra Nevada, and Great Salt
| lake, Sewer lake and Peru lake, of the East
ern confines, sink into the clay (plains) and
desert sands OF the Great Basin, and make
those singular meadows, shallow marshes or
| green fats of which we often see examples
near the mouths of the rivers Of California.
| Thus the Utah Basin contains innumerable
limitations Of its general features within
its own capacious bosom, and all its streams
flow toward a central line of concavity, as
we know would be within the cup OF crater,
its tilt OF waters being generally from east to
the base Of the Washoe tianks.
1. The Smaller Basin of Mono lake, which
is separated from the Basin Of Owens lake,
which latter is some 100 miles long. Both
are situated on the crcsts Of the Southern
Sierra Nevada and their waters fall within
and are absorbed inside Of each of their own
separate circumferences, and Z 900 feet above
the sea.
Owens lake is nearly on the parallel Of the
Southern rim Of the Great Basin (this South
ern Rim is still unexplorcd) and, going east
ward, is Immediately opposite the headwaters
OF the Armagosa or Bitter Water, which has
small streams from the north and south, and
both streams fall into the basin of the Dead
Sea or Death Valley Of California, the dry
bed of which is 80 miles long by 10 miles
broad, and is 100 feet below the level of the
sea- 1t is situated directly to the south of
the watershed of the Great Basin,
and where the slope from the crests
of the Kern river mountains look east
southeast and connect in half table land
| bluffs, peaks, etc., with the South Sierra Ne
vada OF Tejon, which only seem high from
far south, coming from the Gulf, but are
merely on level Of 5000 or 1000 feet,
whereas coming from the ocean to the Sierra
Nevada crestS, YOU ascend in 100 miles as
much as 10000 feet, difference necessary
to fix in the mind tu understand the subject
better. and remembering the descents from
Lake Tahoe, looking east into Washoe, are
! very steep, while crossing the low divide par
allel with the Armagosl from the south, you
ascend gently and descend as gently into the
edge of the inner cup. The Armagosa is in
cluded near the junction Of Tularc and San
Bernardino counties, where the Bernardino
ranges, and the volcanic Sierras which in
fringe upon the Colorado and shut off CT
press in number OF singular basins or era
ters, which, it is to be remembered are all
separated from each other, but OF lessening
magnitudcs as they narrow southwark to-
wards that of CariSso Arroyo, as follows:
6. These are: A, the basin OF White Rock
Creek OF the Tehecheplh; B, the basin Of the
Mohave; B, the POtosi Basin; d, the basin
OF Aubrey's Lake; +, the basin Of Peanute;
and finally I, the basin Of Carriso, in San
Diego county. The northern aspects of this
enclosure Of cratcrs or of old volcanic vents,
are the south rim or wall OF hills of the
Utah Basin as you ascend from the south;
to the west of the Sierra Nevada and the
Bernardno range; to the east OF the baSaltic
ridges of the Colorado; and to the south the
low hills Of the watershed below CarriSO,
from which watershed flows east and south
to the New River OF the Colorado. Between
the parallel of Owens Lake and the New
River, this district, as exhibited on the best
and latest maps, Government and private,
NAV be compared to the figure OF the pear,
with the largest end to the northeast and the
small end tn the southwest. 1t is one OF the
most fiery, desicated and volcanic districts of
trembling earth on the globe. Its extreme
length, from the Dead Sea parallel 70 Carriso,
is 300 mics, the Dead Valley being one Of
the most extraordinary OF its wonderful fea-
lures, and indeed with the 3OO-mile Big
Canon, among the geographical wonders OF
North America, and where it is said no ami
mated being can live. Its aspects are most
dreary and melancholy. The aifiuents Of
this Deaths Valley perform an oval circle,
except small breadth at the north, with
crest of high hills separating the proper
Dead Sea on the west from a similar one, but
much smaller, on the east part Of the afore-
said ridge.
THE BR1G's "GoAX."-Gcn. John Bid
well, of Chico, is a quiet, sedate man, who
relishes wit, but dislikes a surfcit Of it; but
he will occasionally have his put" A few
weeks ago he leased his exhibition hall to the
Light Infantry for an armory, and on the fol-