398 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 



of calcium borate (colemanite) in the Calico District, this same county. 

 The Saline Valley, the Amargosa, and Furnace Creek deposits, in Inyo 

 County, are also extensive. (Specimen No. 62444, U.S.N.M.). Large 

 deposits of priceite are also found 5 miles north of Chetco, in Curry 

 County (Specimen No. 63362, U.S.N.M.), Oregon. The mineral is 

 stated l)y Dana to occiir in a hard, compact form in layers, between 

 a bed of slate above, the cavities and fissures of which it fills, and a 

 tough, blue steatite below, also occurring in bowlders or rounded 

 masses completely embedded in the steatite. These masses vary from 

 the size of a pea to those of 200 pounds weight each. 



The Calico District colemanite above referred to occurs, according 

 to W. H. Storms,^ as a bedded "vein" in sedimentar}- strata which in 

 Tertiary times were uplifted in the Calico Range, the sedimentary 

 rocks consisting of sandstones, sandy clays, and clayey sands. "'The 

 borax ' vein ' is traceable for several thousand feet, striking along the 

 western and northern side of the largest sedimentary hillin the range, 

 and finally passing down a canyon to the eastward, where it becomes 

 a well-defined vein. Toward the western end the borate of lime 

 appears to be much mixed with the sandy sediments, gypsum, and 

 clays, giving the appearance of having been formed near the shore 

 line of the basin in which this great mass of material has been left 

 as a residuary deposit, due to the evaporation of the water containing 

 the calcium borate." There are apparently two beds of borate from 

 7 to 10 feet in thickness in close proximity, but which are believed by 

 Mr. Storms to be portions of the same bed repeated as the result of an 

 anticlinal fold, and exposed through erosion. See Plate 21. 



The following description of Searles Marsh, in San Bernardino 

 County, is from th(^ reports of the State mineralogist.^ 



This marsh is situated in the northwestern corner of San Bernardino 

 County, occupying a portion of T. 25 S., R. 43 E., M. D. M. The 

 site is distant from San Francisco southeast 500 miles; from San Ber- 

 nardino, the shire town of the county, due north 175 miles, and from 

 Mohave, nearest station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, northeast 

 72 miles; these distances being measured by the usuall}^ traveled 

 routes. 



Locally considered, Searles Marsh lies near the center of an exten- 

 sive mountain-girdled plain, to which the phrases ""Alkali Flat," '• Dry 

 Lake," "'Salt Bed," "Borax Marsh" have variously been applied, the 

 contents and physical features of the basin -shaped depression well 

 justifying the several names that have so been applied to it. It is, in 

 fact, a dry lake, the bed of Avhich has been filled up in part with the 

 several substances named. Its contents consist of mud, alkali, salt, 



' Eleventh Annual Report of the State Mineralogist of California, 1892, p. 345. 

 -Tenth Annual Report of the State ^Mineralogist of California, 1890, j). 5;54. 



