18C9.] The AJhaline Lakes of California. 17 



collected from various other localities along the lake-shore showed a 

 distinct excess of carbonic acid. 



Twenty miles south of Owen's Lake is Little Lake, a pond 

 evidently occupying the crater of an extinct volcano, and in the 

 vicinity of which are some remarkable boiling springs. The country 

 between Little Lake and Owen's Lake is a barren sandy plain, in 

 which the only vegetation consists of a few cactuses, together with 

 some stunted wild-sage bushes and grease-wood; whilst the surface 

 of the ground is everywhere thickly strewn with fragments of 

 obsidian, pumice, and tufa. These, with numerous extinct craters 

 seen in the distance, sufficiently indicate the volcanic natm-e of the 

 whole region. 



Borax Lake. — This sheet of water, the Lake " Kaysa " of the 

 Indians, is situated in Lake County, 110 miles from San Francisco, 

 and lies a little east of Clear Lake, about half-way between Cache 

 Creek and Hawkin's Arm. 



This lake, which is separated from Clear Lake by a low range 

 of hills belonging to the cretaceous period, has, under ordinary 

 circumstances, a length of about a mile and an average width of 

 half-a-mile. Its extent, however, varies considerably at different 

 periods of the year, since its waters cover a larger area in spring 

 than during the autumnal months. No stream of any kind flows 

 into the basin, which derives its supply of water from the drainage 

 of the surrounding hills, as well as, in all probability, from subter- 

 raneous springs discharging themselves into the bottom of the 

 lake. In ordinary seasons the depth thus varies from 5 feet in 

 the month of April, to 2 feet at the end of October. 



Borax occurs in the form of crystals of various dimensions 

 embedded in the mud of the bottom, which is of an exceedingly 

 unctuous character, and is found to be most productive to a depth 

 of about 3^ feet, although a bore-hole, which was sunk near its 

 centre to a depth of 60 feet, afforded a certain proportion of that 

 salt throughout its whole extent. 



The crystals thus occurring are most abundant near the centre 

 of the lake, and this rich portion extends over an area equivalent 

 to about one-third of its surface. They are, however, also met 

 with in smaller quantities in the muddy deposit of the other 

 portions of the basin, some of them being, in the richest part 

 before alluded to, over a pound in weight. The largest crystals 

 are generally enclosed in a still' blue clay, at a depth of between 

 3 and 4 feet, and a short distance above them is a nearly pure 

 stratum of smaller ones, some 2| inches in thickness, in addition 

 to which crystals of various sizes are disseminated throughout the 

 muddy deposit of which the bottom consists. 



Besides the borax thus found in a crystalline form, the mud is 

 itself highly charged with that salt, and according to Oxland, when 



VOL. VI. C 



