CALIFORNIA ALKALINE AND BORAGIC LAKES. 233 



worthy of a most careful examination, to ascertain how considerable a flow 

 of water can be depended on."* 



Dr. A. Blatchly, of San Francisco, in speaking of the geyser group of 

 quicksilver-mines, says: "Nearly all these veins contain iron in consider- 

 able amounts, frequently in sufficient quantities to constitute an ore of iron. 

 G-old, silver, and copper, are also frequently constituents of tliese lodes, and 

 occasionally chrome-iron in considerable quantities. But, so far as is known, 

 in no instance have the precious metals been sufficiently abundant to pay 

 for the exjDense of extraction. 



"Bitumen is found in nearly all these veins, sometimes a deposit of a 

 gallon or two in one cavity. 



" Thermal springs are numerous throughout the whole quicksilver-region, 

 and the uniformity of their occurrence leads prospectors to the belief that 

 there is an intimate relation between the causes which generate thermal 

 springs and produce deposits of cinnabar, and that where one is foxmd the 

 other may probably occur in the vicinity."t 



On the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, near Walker's Pass, borax is 

 found in what appears to be the bed of an ancient lake, large crystals of 

 this substance having been met with in a hardened mud, exactly resembling 

 those found in the blue clay of Borax Lake. By far the largest amount of 

 borax is, however, obtained from the indurated mud, Avhere it exists in com- 

 mon with other salts. This mud, from which borax is separated by lixivi- 

 ation, contains about half its weight of that salt, and is a light, clay-like 

 body, having a strongly saline and alkaline taste. The jDortion insoluble in 

 water effervesces on being attacked by hydrochloric acid, and contains silica, 

 alumina, lime, ferrous oxide, and magnesia.' Similar deposits containing 

 borax exist in Panamit and Death's Valley, in Lower Nevada; btit these 

 desolate districts have not as yet received so carefal an examination as they 

 deserve. 



About twenty miles west of San Bernardino is the so-called "Cane Spring- 

 District," where ulexite or boronatrocalcite is found, over an area about ten 

 miles in width by fifteen in length. The surface of the ground is covered 

 by efloresceht salts, commonly known as "alkali," beneath which the borax 

 salts (chiefly ulexite) are found at a depth of only a few inches. 



At Hot Springs, in the northwestern portion of the State of Nevada, at 

 a height of 4,500 feet above the level of the sea, and where the water issu- 

 ing from the ground has a temperature of about 190° Fahr., there are de- 

 posits of boronatrocalcite, extending over considerable areas. Here, as far 

 as the eye can reach, nothing is seen but barren mountains, formed of a 

 black, porous lava; while the valleys are covered by an efiiorescence of a 

 mixture of common salt and sulphate and carbonate of sodium. In other 

 cases the sands of these mountain-valleys contain deposits of more or less 

 pure boronatrocalcite. 



"■•'"Geological Survey of California," p. 100. t" Mineral Ee?ource3 west of the Kocky 

 Mountains," 1875, p. 176. — Eaymond. 



