CHAPTEE III 



Early 



geological 



days. 



The former 

 Gulf. 



THE BOTTOM OF THE BOWL 



IN the ancient days when the shore of the 

 Pacific was young, when the white sierras had 

 only recently been heaved upward and the des- 

 ert itself was in a formative stage, the ocean 

 reached much farther inland than at the pres- 

 ent time. It pushed through many a pass and 

 flooded many a depression in the sands, as its 

 wave-marks upon granite bases and its numer- 

 ous beaches still bear witness. In those days 

 that portion of the Colorado Desert known as 

 the Salton Basin did not exist. The Gulf of 

 California extended as far north as the San 

 Bernardino Eange and as far west as the Pass 

 of San Gorgonio. Its waters stood deep where 

 now lies the road-bed of the Southern Pacific 

 railway, and all the country from Indio almost 

 to the Colorado Eiver was a blue sea. The 

 Bowl was full. No one knew if it had a bot- 

 tom or imagined that it would ever be emptied 

 of water and given over to the drifting sands. 

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