40 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



tered clumps of creosote bush or mesquite. The mountain slopes are 

 devoid of all vegetation and soil, exposing only naked rock. 



The eastern wall of the valley is precipitous and almost unscalable, 

 formed of brilliantly colored volcanic rocks rising 5,000 feet above 

 the floor. The western wall, the Panamint Range, is made up of 

 granite, limestone, and volcanic rocks, rising to an elevation of 

 10,937 "1' 11.240 feet above the floor. During six months of the 

 year the highest elevations of this range are capped with snow, the 

 melting of which feeds the springs along the western border of the 

 valley. 



'^ 



Fig. 30. — Saratoga Springs, south end of Death Valley. The surrounding lime- 

 stone mountains are almost bare of vegetation. (Photograph by Foshag.) 



At Furnace Creek a good cabin in the lee of a high cliff was utilized 

 as a camp. Violent winds often swept down the wash at night, rat- 

 tling the tin cans among the boulders ; other nights were beautifully 

 starlit and silent. Down the wash are clay hills containing some of the 

 most interesting of the mineral localities, while in the opposite direc- 

 tion lies Ryan, the center of the borax mining district, on the flank 

 of Mesa Negra. 



The borax beds are found in a number of localities in and about 

 Furnace Creek Wash, a boulder-strewn dry stream channel flanked 

 by hills of sands, clays, and volcanic flows. These clay and sand hills 

 present a peculiar appearance. They are deeply dissected but with 



