An Unique Region 179 



of abject deserts, the hottest and most arid place in the conti- 

 nental United States. In the southern part of Owens Valley 

 lies Owens Lake, a sheet of saline water so highly charged with 

 mineral salts that commercial use is made of them at Keeler, on 

 the eastern shore of the lake. The lake is fed by the waters of 

 Owens River, which in its northern sources brings waters from 

 the crest of the Sierra range near San Joaquin Pass. Practically 

 all its tributaries are from the crest region of the Sierra, fed 

 almost wholly by snows that accumulate east of the divide. 

 The pure waters of the upper river are captured south of Big 

 Pine, about 40 miles north of Owens Lake, and conveyed by 



Photo by AJolph Knopf, U. S. Geol. Survey 

 FIG. 56. East fault scarp of Inyo Range facing Saline Valley. 



aqueduct to the city of Los Angeles. The lake, having no out- 

 let, its waters become very saline by evaporation. Owens River 

 is a turbulent stream in its upper course. It crosses a large lava 

 plateau, into which it has eroded a canyon 800 feet deep before 

 it emerges upon the flat plain of Owens Valley proper. The 

 elevation of the valley floor where the river emerges from the 

 canyon cut in the lava plain, is a little more than 4,000 feet 

 above sea level. The valley in its upper courses is about 8,000 

 feet above sea. The flat even floor of the Valley below the lava 

 plateau descends at a rate of about 7 feet to the mile, to 3,600 

 feet where the river enters Owens Lake. The northern part 



