Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1905-10-28
THE GREAT DESERT.
- Interesting Lecture On Its Re-
sources and Development.

t,re before the Academy OF Sciences
n Los Angeles a short time ago on
.erbe Desert, its Resources, Water
supply and Development Professor
Pail ey knows the desert as well as
anv man who has Travelled yer it
and his lecture was not only enter
taipi ng, but quite instructive. Lack
d space prevents us publishing it in
full.
IN referring to the topography Of
the desert Prof. Bailey spoke as
fol flows:
''The Desert is walled in on the
west by the great Sierra Nevada
range G, which eliminates in Mt. Whit
new. the highest mountain Of the
United States, It's summit being
nearly IS, 900 feet above the ocean.
Many have the idea, gained in child
hood, that the Desert is a great and
Dir cary stretch Of sand. Instead Of
that, picture it as it really is-the
bottom Of an old ocean, whose floor
slants from the mountains on the
west, to a great trough that extends
from Death Valley southwest by
Soda Lake across the entire Desert.
The Professor next spoke Of the
water supply and said: "The Anar-
gosa river rises near Bullfrog and
flo WIS south for over one hundred
miles to Saratoga Springs, and there
it turns northwest and sinks 10
Death Valley. This river is an
artery Of salt, whose course most Of
the time is marked only by the
streak Of sBlines evaporated from
its waters, or the pools OF brine, left
from the last food. Owens river
lies among the glaciers and snow
banks that mark the crest OF the
great Sierras, north of Whitney, and
flo VS. southeast aud sinks in Owens
Lake. This great river is fed by the
eternal SHOWS OF the highest range in
our land, and the supply and purity
OF the water is all that has been
claimed for it, nor does it become
eonta minated until past the point
where the "City OF the Angels" pro.
pos es to get its drinking water.
THE lakes, where these rivers
sink, have not BEEN made saline by
the present rivers, but are the loves
pools or depressions in the bottom 0
form er geological seas, whose water,
nave evaporated, and whose saliu,
contents have concentrated in thes,
lowest depressions in which thes,
rivers now disappear. Their forme
condition is shown by the old beac.
lines, Several hundred feet above tn
present level Of the lake, like tn
bea ch lines three hundred feet abov
Salton Sea, and those Others fftee
hundred feet above Death Valley.
THE springs Of the desert are .
deep.seated and their source is ia
dis tant from where their water
reach the surface. This fact is show
by the fact that all are more or les
mineral, their waters often bein
warn when they reach the surfac
and maintain a uniform Temperature
through the cold winter weather a
well as during the heato OF summer. +"
AS to the geology Professor Bale
spoke as follows.
The mountain ranges OF II
Desert have u general northwest an
southeast direction. This is true
the large mountains, the smaller on,
vary from this. In the northel
por ton Of the area under discussioI
anticlinal and synclinal structur,
are common, but the structure
most OF the Desert is %monoclinal,
II the floor Of the Desert had bee
cracked at right angles, aud, wheI
The cracks joined, one corner h;
been pushed up in the air like a bloc
OF ice the wind and the storms moo
lying this exterior. On the larl
ranges in the north, where the an
ciinal are, great faults will be notice
%"unniug generally from northeast
south west, the displacement oft,
amounting TO several hundred feet.
There are places where anticlina
are distinctly shown, where there q
oil seepages and indications tn
mark the position of future oil field
The Professor spoke OF I
climate and said that he had e