124 Adventures in Scenery 



River are "pure" as surface waters go. Even the pure clear 

 sparkling waters of mountain streams contain some mineral 

 matter dissolved from the rocks. By long continued evapora- 

 tion from Owens Lake the contained mineral matter becomes 

 concentrated so that the waters of Owens Lake are strongly 

 saline. The river waters diverted by the Los Angeles Aqueduct 

 are essentially pure. The salts now contained in solution in 

 Owens Lake were undoubtedly derived by the slow accumula- 

 tion and concentration of the river waters entering the basin. 



In the geologic past Owens Lake overflowed and supplied 

 water to a series of lakes in Indian Wells, Searles, and Panamint 

 valleys. On the bottoms of these lakes deposits occurred con- 

 sisting principally of clay, with minor amounts of sand and 

 almost no gravel. In most places they include some chemically 

 deposited salts. In a few places these salts are of economic 

 value. 



Amargosa River rises in a group of springs about 17 miles 

 northeast of Bullfrog, Nevada. It is dry the greater part of the 

 time throughout much of its course. It is about 140 miles long. 

 Its course is east of south through Franklin Dry Lake, thence 

 south through a canyon about 10 miles long to the southern 

 end of Death Valley. Here it turns westward to Saratoga 

 Springs, where it flows northwestward to the sink of Death 

 Valley. The northern end of Death Valley lies nearly due west 

 of the head of the river, so that the depression which is occupied 

 by the Amargosa River as a whole is in the form of a long and 

 narrow U. Ordinarily there is water at only a few places along 

 the course of the channel, but when a cloud-burst occurs it 

 may become a raging torrent for a few hours. For many years 

 the river has not been known to carry enough water to flow on 

 the surface as far as the lowest depression of Death Valley. 

 The waters of the Amargosa are briny along its lower course. 

 Where it spreads out into the large playa at Resting Springs 

 Dry Lake it leaves fields of salt as well as of borax and niter. 

 Hot springs discharge into it at a number of places. 



