344 CHARLES D. WALCOTT 



3° to 5° in its continuation up the canyon. The rise of the can- 

 yon bottom is nearly coincident with that of the lake beds. 



The upper surface of the lake beds throughout the Waucobi 

 embayment is covered by a layer of debris formed of fragments 

 of arenaceous limestone, siliceous shale, and quartzite that have 

 been brought down from the mountain slopes. Numerous washes 

 and canyons have cut through this mantle of drift and more or 

 less into the lake beds beneath. The general character of the 

 deposit is well shown in the accompanying figure (Fig. 3). 



The lake beds are of essentially the same character as those 

 described by Mr. G. K. Gilbert as occurring in the Lake Bonne- 

 ville basin, and by Professor I. C. Russell as occurring in the 

 Lake Lahontan basin. ^ They were evidently deposited in the 

 bottom of a lake, into which, near the shoreline, coarse material 

 was washed from the mountains, the finer sand and silt being 

 carried farther out and deposited with the calcareous sediment 

 and remains of fresh-water shells. 



There may be no a priori reason why such deposits should 

 not have been made upon a lake bottom sloping from 3° to 5°, 

 but this is improbable, and it would presuppose the existence of 

 a lake 3000 feet in depth over the site of the present Owens 

 Valley. If such a lake existed, there must have been a barrier to 

 the south of Owens Lake, of which no trace now remains. This 

 is not at all probable. South of Owens Lake the divide is about 

 220 feet above the lake."^ There is no appearance, as viewed 

 from the south end of the Inyo Range, of the remains of a great 

 barrier between Owens Lake and the drainage basin to the south. 



A second conception is that the Inyo Range has been ele- 

 vated, the range and the country to the eastward rising and tilt- 

 ing the lake beds toward Owens Valley and the Sierra Nevada. 



The accompanying diagrammatic sketch (Fig. 4) illustrates 

 the relations of the Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, the Inyo 

 Range, and the lake beds resting on the westward slope of the 

 Waucobi embayment. 



' Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, Vols. I and XI. 



== Owens Lake, 3567 feet above sea level ; Hawai meadows, 3782 feet at divide. 

 Wheeler). 



