158 GUIDEBOOK OF THE WESTERN UNITED STATES, 
The bottom of the basin a few miles north of Ludlow usually pre- 
sents a vast expanse of glistening, mud-cracked surface, but sometimes 
it is covered by water. This bare plain is in conspicuous contrast to 
the general area of the desert, which is covered with the creosote bush 
(Covillea tridentata). 
Ludlow is the outlet for the Death Valley borax, now carried by rail 
but formerly by the well-advertised 20-mule team. One of the wagons 
used in this transportation is now on exhibition on the north side of 
the track a few rods beyond the station. Its capacity is 10 tons. 
West of Ludlow the train climbs rapidly along the slopes of buttes 
of voleanic rocks (rhyolite and tuff), which rise to considerable height 
in a series of ridges extending far to the south. These rocks are well 
exposed at Argos siding, 5 amiilos west of Ludlow 
At a point 1.4 miles oe of Argos, just hovand “milepost 700, the 
train crosses: a low divide and enters another basin. The bottom of 
the basin is largely occupied by a very recent sheet of lava,! the edge 
of which is half a mile beyond milepost 701. The railway skirts the 
northern edge of this lava flow for 6 miles, or to a point a short dis- 
tance beyond Pisgah siding. Near the center of the flow, about 2 
miles southeast of Pisgah siding, rises a beautifully symmetrical cinder 
1 The lava is black and cellular, and al- 
— the sheet is not very thick it pre- 
surface of Sevens irregularity, 
flows in other portions of the world. 
As in the other recent flows, the lava 
welled out of an i lar orifice and 
spread widely over the bottom of the 
b its area widened the surface 
congealed, but the hot lava broke out 
from underneath, causing anes and 
That the molten lava was filled with pba 
the details of flow are clearly shown by the 
surfaces, which in some places are ropy, as 
the lava puckered ‘in congealing, and in 
others are glassy and smooth, like slag 
— a ees ——. Many of the tunnels 
able huge bubbles or blisters, more or Sea 
y deep fissures due to the con- 
iffs, in most places consisting o 
great masses of broken fragments, je 
as the congealing rock was 4 es along 
by the advance of the flow 
The cinder cone i t 
of the eruption and beets a aes marks 
the place of the orifice. 
height in the air, and, falling on all sides, 
quickly built upacone. A mass of cinder 
lying against the west inner side of the 
cone is slightly different in color, and 
probably is the = of a final supple- 
meatal outburs 
a3 ria | 
by the fact that the ia of loose material - 
is no nee) gee oxidation of the rocks or 
va still shows the jagged 
edges due to pothate of flow, and there 
are many minute stalactites of lava hang- 
ing in the Fools of the tunnels. 
terial als 
deposits that are of recent age. 
