Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1864-03-21
THE EVENING NEWS.
The Interior Basins Of California,
Utah, etc.
Concluded from the 5. +. Bulletin

Concluded from the s. +. Bulletin.l
There can be very little doubt, from all that
is known up to March, 1864, that the lati-
tude of the southern rim Of the present Great
Basin of Utah is laid down approximately
correct by Fremont on his map Of l848;
which map, by the bye, is we'll known to have
been used to lay off the present boundaries
of the State of California in the Monterey
Constitutional Convention Of lS49. From
the CarrisO Arroyo to the Great Salt Lake,
as we are informed BY the mining gambusinos
of 1868 and 1864, it can be ascended and ira
yersed by wagons, as it were by steps and
tables, on gradual inclination from south to
north, and descended from the Salt Lake to
the Carriso reversely through intervening
plains and deserts, set in among the scgrega-
ted and broken ridges and anesas which rise
from what may be termed its bed or beds
like islets from the ocean, and which show,
for distance of ! 900 miles in length, to have
been once covered by brackish or sea water.
From Great Salt Lake to Carriso may be
seen old parallel water-line marks, bracElsh
and salt water shells, entire and comminuted,
and old timbers in abundance. Innumerable
evidences remain besides these which show
it to have been once, and not very remotely,
covered BY water, and that its beds have been
tilted and upheaved BY volcanic and earth.
quake forces, and that there eXistmany indi-
cations, in fish, shell and animal oils, and
in mineral remains, of its former connection
with the aforementioned Tulare Basin Of
California and the waters Of the Vermilion
Sea. 1t seems also probable that the present
Colorado, or large western branches OF 1t,
anciently flowed near the hanks OF the sierra
Nevada and the San Bernardino range, and
occupied the basins enumerated herein. Old
river beds have been frequently met with, and
are even now being worked by the miners in
our State, proving that, geologically speak
ing, great earth dislocatlons have taken place
very recently, and that we live in new-made
land.
Probably the old water made in the ancient
basin fUrds, inlets and canals, such as we see
pictured so curiously on the maps IN Puget
Sound, Vancouver Island and the coasts
north-the intimations Of which may be taken
as remaining in those immense profound dry
canons and barrapcas deserted and dellneated
by Ives in his history of the Colorado eXpe-
dition of 1859. To the eastward Of the Colo
rado there appears TO oe, from tne most
recent accounts, no existing c'idences OF
basins similar to those we nave described
until the fanks OF the RIO del Norte Noun
tainS are reached, going down on the crests
OF the Sierra MaGre OF Mexico. Inc great
commissions, uphearals and changes we have
alluded to alterIated several hundred years
between each other, or they may have been
very gradual, or they may have been effected
at once. In an immense district OF country,
!, 1000 miles SQUARE, within the delta of the
River Indus, such phenomena occurred in
1919, and several others are known anterior
10 il in the chronicles Of India, where exist
| in the Indus delta buried cities like Hercu-
laneum, which have been examined since
| 1857 by English explorers. The Archipelago
| of the China Seas and the Archipelago of the
| Grecian Seas, within the last hundred years,
have undergone extraordinary upheavals and
denressions, some Of the most famous and
| terrible of which occurred within the past
six wears only. Besides this, the surface Of
the Caspian Sea is more than one hundred
| feet below the level of the ocean the deserts
Of Sucz in parts are similarly situated and
some of the interior basins Of Australia are
| from recent careful examinations ascertained
to partake of the characteristics and depres-
sion of the Death Valley of California. So
late as 1885 the sea line Of the coast Of Chile
was permanently raised four and five feet
HIGHER above the old beach for several hun
dred miles: and this had been preceded in
| 1900 by a similar upheayal, but on a much
rr,ndcy ecalc tban in iS35. And to end with
fheSe eortb changes. the shores of the Baltic
in narts. and particularly its immense arm
the Gulf of Bothnia, have been scientifically
proved TO have undergone a gradual rising
within the last sixty years.
A singular and well known matter connect
ed with the Colorado valley since the epoch
of gold is, that river was made in the desert
in the heavy rains and SHOWS from December
lS4S, to January, 1852, called New River,
since dried up, and which pushed back or
overaowed water-Aoodings from the Colorado
into 4 small basin and dry river bed toward
the west, 70 feet below the sea, which is sep
arated from the Carriso BY the mud volcanoes.
Its connection with the New RIVER lastcd
several years, when IT'S mouth was again
blocked up By drift and sand bars from the
Colorado, very likely assisted oy the then
prevalent earthquakes OF that district. Even
in our day, therefore, we may see consider
able rise or considerable depression IN the
lower Colorado, and the waters OF the Guli
retire, or swelling up in company with those
mighty CHORES" or "egres" from the Gull,
with such heavy rains as those oi lool-looZ,
come tumbling and rolling, and overflow the
whole district again, and lave the very feet
OF Benardino, filling many oil the basins men
toned, TO be dessicated afterwards. Sucn
phenomena always seem to have affected al
our ocean lines, as there can now be no dis
pute that the seacoaSt Of California mas oeen
elevated in many places from III to oO teet
above the old beaches, and in other places at
the same time depressed ; and that not many
hundred years ago, as the fossil remains OF
mollusks and cetacea abound within few
wards distance of living species, and which
have frequently preserved their very color in
a petritied state, as may be seen every day.
All olono the coast of Alta California, from