CHAPTER IV 



A Bee-Line across the State 



El Centre in the south, to Yreka on the north, represents a 

 distance of nearly 900 miles. Probably no line of equal length 

 in the United States (or any where else) crosses so great a diver- 

 sity of soils and climate, or so varied geologic features. El 

 Centre is on the great plain of the Colorado Desert near the 

 extreme southern boundary of California and the United States. 

 Yreka is on the high lava-plain which extends from the Sierra 

 Nevada Range of California to the Cascades of Oregon. The 

 line from El Centre to Yreka is purely an imaginary one. No 

 highway traverses it. In imagination it may be traversed by 

 air-plane. From this imaginary viewpoint a glimpse may be 

 obtained of the geographic and geologic features of this re- 

 markable State. 



El Centra and the Salton Sea 



El Centre is below the level of the sea. The great Imperial 

 Valley, once a desert, has been reclaimed by harnessing the Colo- 

 rado River. This great region was once an arm or bay of the 

 ocean. The vast basin has been filled by detritus carried by the 

 river from the great interior basin that lies east of the Sierra 

 Range in Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. This vast 

 southern desert region will be described elsewhere. Let us pro- 

 ceed northward on a Bee-line toward Yreka. 



Centrally located in this great valley of southern California 

 is El Centre. To the north is the Salton Sea, an enclosed basin 

 of water having no outlet, and below the level of the sea. The 

 Colorado River has carried and deposited sediments that form a 



