CHAPTER X 

 THE MOJAVE DESERT 



An exceedingly interesting region of California is known as 

 the Mojave Desert. The region is traversed for a distance of 

 100 miles by the Mojave River, from which it gets its name. 

 The area includes Inyo and San Bernardino counties, and east- 

 ern Kern, northeastern Los Angeles, and northern and eastern 

 Riverside counties. Death Valley lies to the north. There is 

 no definite line of demarcation separating the desert to the 

 south from the similarly desert region lying to the east of Owens 

 Lake, and including Death Valley and the Amargosa Desert. 



Location and Extent 



Mojave Desert is separated from the Colorado Desert, which 

 lies to the south, by a series of southeasterly trending mountain 

 ranges. The San Bernardino Range extends southeast from 

 Cajon Pass more than 100 miles, and the Cottonwood, Chucka- 

 walla, and Chocolate ranges extend to the Colorado River. The 

 San Gabriel Range separates the desert from the Los Angeles 

 basin on the south. The Desert is bounded on the west by the 

 southern Sierra Nevada Range and the Tehachapi Mountains. 

 It extends north to the latitude of Mount Whitney, and east 

 to the State line and into Nevada. On the south and east it ex- 

 tends to the Colorado River, which forms the boundary of the 

 State of Arizona. It is a part of the Great Basin region of North 

 America. This vast desert region embraces more than 30,000 

 square miles, an area almost as large as that of the State of Maine. 

 It is a vast arid region destitute of any drainage streams that 

 reach the ocean. The water supply, such as there is, is obtained 

 from springs and wells. The region is much broken by moun- 

 tains and hills, often rough and rocky. 



