34 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 63 
the region now included in northern Nevada and eastern California. 
It was no doubt a magnificent lake, including as it did a number of 
large and beautiful islands, with the great snow-capped wall of the 
Sierra on one side and the endless shimmering desert on the other. 
Even now, though dwindled and shrunken through desiccation, its 
glory has not all departed. For although one may travel for days 
over the wind-driven sands of its parched floor, the great terraces 
and castellated crags of its ancient shores tower at times hundreds 
of feet on either side, and there still remain a number of small though 
Fic. 35.—Humboldt River near the Palisades, Nevada. 
Photograph by Snyder. 
very beautiful lakes and several rivers of considerable size which 
were once tributaries of the greater lake. The waters of none of 
these reach the ocean but ultimately disappear through evaporation, 
or sink into the loose, dry sands of the desert. 
Lake Tahoe, near the crest of the Sierras, 6,247 feet above the sea, 
has 195 square miles of clear water which reaches a depth of 1,645 
feet. Its outlet, the Truckee River, plunges down 2,300 feet in a 
distance of about too miles, finally bifurcating and entering Pyramid 
and Winnemucca Lakes. The former is 30 miles long and 12 wide, 
the water having a depth of over 350 feet. It embraces some pictur- 
