THE OVERLAKD EOUTE — OGDEN TO SAN" FRANCISCO. 



191 



Truckee Meadows and in the broad expanse of open valleys lying to 



the south, in the upper Carson Valley. 



Reno hes near the extreme western edge of Nevada and of the Great 



Basin, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. Here Tniekee River emerges 



pen 



thills of the high mountains and flows out into the o 



Truckee Meadows. Now, as in the early pioneer days, Reno is a 

 landmark in the journey across the continent. Here ends the long 

 stretch of desert, and here the high timbered slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada, with their streams of fresh runnmg water, appear near at 

 hand. On the site of the present city a road house was erected in 



ommodation of travelers and freight teams 



om 



Cahfornia- Bj 1863 this place had heconie known 

 as Lakes Crossing, and five years later it was chosen as a site for a 

 station by the Central Pacific Railway. The name Reno Avas given 



to it at that time 



of the Civil War, 



became an im 

 )articularly foi 

 eadv famous ( 



Carson, the capital of Nevada, lies about 30 miles to the south and, 



tern 



mam 



Tliis is the upper 



hich, like the Truckee, flows eastw 



the Great Basin. 



miles south of Reno on the road to Carson is a group 



hot springs kno"v\Ti as 



mgs 



These and other hot- 



spring waters along the Sierra front have iheu- origin in the heated 

 depths of the earth, and come up along fault fissures generally parallel 

 with the Sierra. The ground around Steamboat Springs has been 

 l>nilt Up by silica deposited by the hot waters, as a low ridge of white 



which 



m 



Manv of 



the pools are actually at boding temperature, and in cool weather 



cloud 



team 



spaces or fissures in the rocks through 

 which the waters passed, the deposition 



emi 



wi 



Many 



ore 



deposits are undoubtedly 



* Steamboat Sprino:s, Nev.. has figured 

 prominently in discussions of the origin 

 of ore deposits. The waters of these 

 springs contain the precious metals in 

 minute quantities, and the sinter depos- 

 ited by them contain*^ several minerals 

 that are common constituents of ores, as 

 ■^oll as small quantities of many of the 

 rarer metallic constituents of ore deposits, 

 iucludinpr^rold and silver. Such springs, 

 therefore, suggest that many and perhaps 

 most ore-bearing vein&have been formed 



by hot waters rising from great depths, „ ^ _ i v i 



which have brought their metal contents valuable ore deposits is mdicated by the 

 upiuaolution and deposited them in open close relation obsen^ed at many places 



formed in other ways, for some are unques- 

 tionably of sedimentary origin and the 

 metal content of some others has been car- 

 ried down, redeposited, and concen- 



nun 



earth's crust; but the '^hydrothermal 



ongm 



that is, 



deposition from 



water — of 



