352 Adventures in Scenery 



sand and clay, fills the basins between the mountains, ridges and 

 hills. Well borings to depths of 500 to 900 feet have not 

 reached the bed-rock. Coarser gravel skirts the mountain 

 slopes, and finer detrital material lies farther from the rocky 

 uplands. The Mojave River has cut its channel 75 to 100 feet 

 below the surface of the alluvial plain. The alluvium is suffi- 

 ciently indurated (solidified) so that the walls of the river 

 channel stand in vertical cliffs, with eroded pinnacles. Such 

 cliffs stand out notably west of Bryman station, north of 

 Victorville. 



Victorville, 40 miles from San Bernardino (El. 2,716 feet) . 



Off to the east from Victorville are the Granite Mountains, 

 and farther still are the Ord Mountains. Gold and copper are 

 reported as occurring in the latter. To the northwest are the 

 vari-colored Calico Mountains, so named because of the vivid 

 green, brown, red, and yellow rocks that are exposed in the 

 eroded cliffs. Silver of a value exceeding one million dollars 

 annually is stated to have been taken from mines in these moun- 

 tains. At the east end of Calico Mountains, at Borate, north- 

 east of Daggett about eight miles, are deposits from which 

 several million dollars' worth of borax have been obtained. The 

 borax occurs as the mineral colemanite, in a deposit from 5 to 

 3 feet thick. 



Daggett, 85 miles (El. 2,002 feet); Manix, 112 miles; 

 Baker 143 miles (El. 921 feet). 



Manix Lake Beds of Earlier Lake 



The waters of Mojave River were ponded in a basin about 

 Manix, forming a lake which existed during a period preceding 

 the present, or Recent time (Pleistocene or Quaternary), and 

 covered an area of more than 200 square miles. The precipita- 

 tion at that time was probably greater than at present, and 

 Mojave River poured its waters into this basin, forming what 

 has been called Manix Lake. In the lake thus formed there was 

 deposited a series of clays and sands, detritus carried down from 



