DESERTS OF THE LAHONTAN REGION. 37 



Carson Desert, so situated as to be conveniently watered from the Carson 

 River, are also under irrigation. At a limited number of localities on the 

 borders of the Black Rock Desert and in Quinn River Valley the water from 

 springs and small mountain streams is used to irrigate gardens or a few acres 

 of grain. In Mason and Honey Lake valleys there are swampy meadows 

 of considerable extent adjoining irrigable lands where abundant harvests 

 are annually secured. 



The Central Pacific Railroad passes for 165 miles through the desic- 

 cated bed of the extinct lake, entering it a few miles east of Golconda and 

 leaving it, on the west, in the Truckee Canon about 1 6 miles west of Wads- 

 worth. Nearly all the villages in the basin are located along this highway, 

 which furnishes supplies for a wide extent of country. The traveler in 

 crossing western Nevada by rail for the first time will perhaps be impressed 

 with its barren nature and perhaps conclude that it is unfit for human hab- 

 itation. With the exception of Mason and Honey Lake valleys, however, 

 it is the most fruitful portion of the Lahontan basin. A typical example of 

 the deserts of Nevada may be seen from the track of the Central Pacific 

 Railroad between Humboldt Lake and the Truckee River, including a 

 glimpse of the Carson Desert to the southward of Humboldt Lake, which 

 was once covered by 500 feet of water. 



The Carson and Colorado Railroad also passes through a portion of the 

 basin once occupied by Lake Lahontan. On going south from Dayton the 

 traveler by this route follows a narrow valley formed in part by the ero- 

 sion of the Carson River, and subsequently occupied by Lake Lahontan. 

 Opposite the site of Camp Churchill the road bends abruptly southward and 

 traverses a narrow pass leading to Mason Valley; from there it follows 

 Walker River and the eastern shore of Walker Lake and crosses the south- 

 ern extremity of the old lake margin at a point a short distance south of 

 Hawthorn. Throiighout this entire distance, with the exception of a short 

 space in the Walker River Canon, the road is below the level of the highest 

 beach of the old lake. 



