El Centra to Yreka 25 



a playa where water is near enough to the surface to enable 

 mequite brush to grow. Northeast of Warren's Well 25 miles 

 is Surprise Spring, so named because of its occurrence on a flat 

 plain where water would not be expected to break out. North 

 20 miles is Means Well, and 10 miles west of this is Old Woman's 

 Spring, the water perhaps coming through the alluvial soil from 

 Rattlesnake Canyon a few miles south in the slope of San Ber- 

 nardino mountains. Twenty miles north of Old Woman's 

 Spring is Sweetwater Spring, in the Ord Mountains, then for 

 1 5 miles to Barstow the traveler will need to carry his canteen 

 of water. And hardtack or some non-perishable food had better 

 be carried, for the desert is little frequented by white men (or 

 Indians either for that matter) and the scant vegetation and 

 the rare animal denizens of the desert will furnish little to the 

 hunter. 



Mojave River starts boldly from the northern slope of the 

 San Bernardino Mountains, but it is a losing game against the 

 odds of little rainfall and high temperature. At flood seasons 

 the channel, a few hundred yards wide, carries enough water to 

 entitle it to be called a river. Most of the year it is a river in 

 name only, with water at intermittent points along the channel. 

 It starts courageously toward the Colorado River, but at Soda 

 Lake it gives up the ghost and ends in the playa or dry lake basin 

 of the so-called Silver and Soda Lakes 100 miles from the 

 Colorado. 



North and east of Barstow, where the Mojave River is 

 crossed, lies the Calico Mountains, so called because of the dif- 

 ferent colors of yellow, red, green, and brown in the rocks. 

 The rocks are of Tertiary age and consist of lava, sandstone, and 

 clay. Silver has been extensively mined, and most of the borax 

 produced in the State was at one time mined at Borate, on the 

 east side of the mountains. The mountains rise to a height of 

 5,000 feet. Harper's Lake is a playa several square miles in area. 

 Many wells furnish water, mostly at depths of less than 100 feet. 

 Some fields of alfalfa show the effect of water, but no extensive 



