f 



ENTRANCE INTO DEATH VALLEY. 5 



From January 14 to 15 we were camped at Lone Willow Tanks, ex- 

 cursions being made to the summit of Browns Peak and into the Slate 

 Range. 



January 19 we broke camp and set out for Death Valley by the old 

 borax road. The excessive dryness of the region was evidenced by 

 the fact that the pencil marks on a roadside graveboard, which had 

 been twelve years exposed to atmospheric effects, still appeared clear 

 and fresh, the surface, of the wood retaining its natural appearance, 

 not changing to the gray color of weathered timber. We passed 

 the night in Long Valley, and in the morning continued down the 

 canon, emerging into Death Valley near the south end of its alkali- 

 fiat. On cither side were high mountains and between them the nar- 

 row valley, not more than 10 miles wide. In the bottom of the valley 

 was the snow-white stretch of salt and alkali, and to the nortlrward, 

 perhaps 50 miles away, mountains, valleys, and salt-flat vanished in 

 haze. Creosote bush had been characteristic of all our route until we 

 n eared the salt-flat; but here, under the influence of clay aud alkali, it 

 gave way to greasewood, 1 that in turn to salt grass, 2 and the last to a 

 shrub 3 related to the pickle weed. Beyond this there was no vegeta- 

 tion whatever. At about the middle of the afternoon, traveling along 

 the margin of the salt flat, we came in sight of a large clump of mes- 

 quite 4 bushes, and a little further on we found another clump, where 

 we made a dry camp. Near the margin of the salt-covered valley- 

 bottom, the soil had the appearance of an area closely covered with 

 cow-tracks, half obliterated, and with a little line snow in the hollows. 

 Farther out the soil was moist, smooth, and covered by a filmy, gray in- 

 crustation. 



The Allenrolfea in this part of the valley grew in bunches, about 

 which the soil accumulated so as to form hummocks often 3 feet in 

 height and several feet across. In the mesquite clumps, which were 

 in less alkaline situations, a similar banking of the soil had occurred. 

 Dry sand blown along over the ground had drifted under the bushes, 

 forming banks often 10 to 15 feet high, out of which the smaller 

 branches of the mesquite projected like briars. 



January 21 we reached Bennett Wells and went into camp, turning 

 our stock out to feed on the bunch grass (Sporobolus airoides) that 

 grew abundantly in the vicinity. 



January 22 I made a short trip westward from camp to the gravelly 

 mesa that slopes gently down from the foot of the Panamints, and re- 

 turned to camp by a detour northward through the mesquites. 



From January 22 to 25, excursions were made from Bennett Wells 

 to various points in the vicinity, and the three following days were 

 occupied by a trip to Furnace Creek. 



1 Alriplex pohjearpa. 3 Allenrolfea occidenialis. 



3 Ditftichlis xpicata. A Prosopis juliflora. 



