276 Field Columbian Museum — Zoology, Vol. III. 



by a deposit of various salts and alkalies, but the surface is broken 

 into innumerable cavities and raised into pinnacles a foot or two 

 high, which have hardened into unyielding masses. Farther out 

 toward the middle the surface is more moist and less rough, but it is 

 wholly without vegetation, except near the margin, where the compo- 

 sition is less alkaline. The level ground bordering* the marsh is 

 covered by a pure growth of salt-grass, which gives way nearer the 

 marsh to a heavy growth of pickle weed, Allenrolfea, which forms 

 a narrow border or setting to the snowy expanse. Away from the 

 marsh in sandy soil and in creek beds the mesquite grows luxuriantlv. 

 Between the mesquite and the salt-grass near the marsh several 

 species of Atriplcx flourish. On the gravelly soil sloping down to the 

 valley from the mountains the creosote bush predominates. Furnace 

 Creek enters the marsh near its northern end from the Funeral 

 Mountains, and is marked by a luxuriant growth of mesquites, 

 willows, cottonwoods, Baccharis, Pluchea, tules, reeds, etc. The 

 entire valley is covered by clumps of large mesquites and in moist 

 places near its walls by patches of screw-pod mesquite, cane-fields, 

 bunch-grass, willows, etc. The southern part of the valley has been 

 blown into huge sand dunes forty or more feet in height. Over most 

 of this area water can be found within two or three feet of the surface, 

 but it is often intensely salt. The rarity of mammals in the valley 

 was striking, and this can be attributed to the Panamint Indians, 

 who trap all kinds of mice and rats for food. Their "dead falls" 

 were seen about every clump of mesquites, and a single Indian, it is 

 said, will catch daily seventy-five or more rats and mice for his 

 family." An interesting collection was made in this valley and new 

 forms were obtained in Citellus, Dipodomys, and Lepus, as well as 

 topotypes of Ncotoma desertorum. 



From Death Valley Mr. Heller passed into the Panamint Moun- 

 tains and made his first camp at Wild Rose Spring. Of this lofty 

 range he writes as follows: "The Panamint Mountains proper extend 

 from Windy Pass, at the southern extremity of Death Valley, to 

 Emigrant Canon, at the southern end of Mesquite Valley, a distance 

 of about forty-five miles. North of Emigrant Pass, which has an 

 altitude of 5,500 feet, the Range is continued as a broad mesa country, 

 which in some places attains an altitude of more than 9,000 feet, 

 and extends as far north as Mount Magruder, which gives the Range 

 a total length of 115 miles. Telescope Peak, the summit of the 

 Range, has an altitude of 10,938 feet and is situated nearly due west 

 of the lowest portion of Death Valley. The Range at this point is 

 very narrow, with very steep sides, making the area reaching above 



