The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1905-05-23

range, seventy miles distant, where the
newly born town of Gold Reed is clam
oring for recognition. One part OF the
desert isN like all of it, as one stretch
OF the shoreless water is like all of the
ocean.
The desert is peculiarly characterized
by low, parallel ranges Of mountains,
having a general north and south
course and separated by valleys from
ten to forty miles wide. These continue
with some degree of regularity as far
south as the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fee Railroad in California. South
of that the valleys and ranges are not
so well defined. AT their northern ends
they have an approximate elevation OF
1000 to 5000 feet, falling gradually to an
altitude of 1000 feet or less in the most
southern part of Nevada.
These parallel ranges are generally
eruptive rocks, though occasionally
there is one of granite, and in some
places the anticlinal fold forming the
range for a considerable distance will
expose only sedimentary rocks, usually
limestone.
These ranges are geologically young.
They emerged from the waters ages
after the time when the Sierra peaks
were Islands in the young worlds
ocean. AT the time, or soon after they 4
were elevated from the waters, there
came a great overflow of lava, now
classed as andesite or rhyolite, and
after other ages there came another
overflow of rhyolite or "malpai," each
covering much of Nevada. Those were
times when this earth shell was
cracked, and heaved and folded when
great masses of half-fused rock filled
cracks, forming what we know as
dikeS or broke out in masses that
formed hills; great hot springs boiled
up and their silica-laden waters
formed veins or mountains of quartz.
The cambrian, silurian, devonian, car
boniferous and triassic were tilted up
and can be seen on the tanks of the
ranges now. Conglomerates, quartz
ties and limestone are the old sedi-
mentary rocks generally seen. Lead
and silver ores are found In the lime
stone while the gold-bearing veins are
mostly in the old andesiteS and rhyo-
lites. There is scarcely any known
variety of ore not found on the dessert.
All the world knows of its great gold
deposits, but the ores 1T possesses
which the world does not yet know
are important. Copper, lead, silver,
antimony, tungsten. cinnabar and
molly bdenum have seen in proven good
has not yet been found in considerable
quantity. In fact the cretaceous, in
which the principal coal deposits of
the West are found. is, so far as /
know, lacking in Nevada. Thin seams
of coal are found in carboniferous
strata in the Monte Christie and other
ranges, but have not developed into
of Importance. Several out
crops of coal are also found at Coal
dale. on the line of the Tonopah Rail
road, in Esmeralda County, but their
value Is problematical. One sample
that I received from there gave results
as follows: Volatile under ESQ degrees.
16 per cent: volatile at white heat,
30.14 per cent; fixed carbon, 28.15 per
cent: ash, % per cent While this Is
poor it is the best found in Nevada
The Grapevine and Funeral ranges
are attracting a great amount of at
tention. and they richly warrant it.
These two ranges are practically one.
North of Furnace Creek it is known as
Grapevine and south as Funeral. The
latter gets its name from the dark,
somber, dreary, thsuggesting
rocks, of which 1t is largely COM
posed. Their SUBMITS are about 5000
feet above sea level. On their west
ern side, descending to Death Valley,
they are steep and cut with rather
rough canyons. On the eastern side a
long escarpment generally stretches
away to the valley. These escarpments
are noticeably peculiar feature all
over the desert They are almost uni
versally found sloping away from the
base OF the ranges. and in many places
veins of ore are covered by them. In
no place have I ever seen a moraine
or other evidence of glaciers. Funeral
Range is mostly composed of sedi-
mentary rocks, capped by basic 1avas.
Some of the old long known and
almost or quite deserted camps are
feeling the revival and showing an un-
suspected wealth Of ore. This is
noticeably true of Tule Canyon, Ida
Valley, Silver Peak and Liberty. The
latter was deserted for years. It was
the despair of the prospector and is
the delight of geologist. While its
formation is simple in theory, It is
complicated in detail. No country
could well be more cut with bikes
and tumbled by small faults. There
are patches of conglomerate. once the
bed of an inland sea. Here will he
an outcrop of fine grained quartzite:
by the side Of 1t magnetism or blue
limestone. cut with a porphyry dixie.
dipping any way as though hazard
had thrown them from natures dice
box. There are places where the lime
stone is stratified and unbroken and
others where it Is assured and
silicified to jasperoid. There is one
mountain a half mile long and a half
thousand feet high of pure white
quartz deposit from a gigantic
spring.
Within a mile is a mountain of
NJ Il,