IV. 



GE^'EBAL FEATURES OF THE GREAT BASIX. 



F 



Shape, Boundaries, and Elevations of the so-called '' Great Basin." — The 

 Region is covered throughout with short Yolcanic Mountain Eanges. — The 

 Soil. — The Drainage: its Peculiaiities. — The term ** Great Basin" is a 

 misnomer. — Lakes and Rivers. — Oases in the Desert. — Mormon Settle- 

 ments. — Mineral Wealth. — The Comstock Lode. 



Between the Wahsatcli Mountains and the Sierra ^N'oyada, 

 extending northward beyond the 42nd parallel, and sonthvard 

 into Lower California^ lies a district considerably larger than 

 the kingdom of France, which goes by the name of the 

 Gj'eat Basin. It has received the name sim]3ly from, the fact 

 that none of its rivers enter the sea. It is not an appropriate 

 namej howerer, for it embodies a glaring topograpliical error. 

 The Colorado Basin represents in shape a triangle, whose 

 apex lies to tlie north, or north-east ; the Great Basin (we must 

 retain the usual name) is also shaped like a triangle, whose apex 

 points to the south or south-west. From this apex at the Gulf 

 of California, the ground rises from the level of tide-water to 

 5,000 feet, or thereabouts, in Central Nevada; and this is 

 about the general level of the whole country between the 

 Sierra Nevada and the Wahsatch Mountains in the broad part 

 of the Great Basin. North of the Humboldt, where the 

 drainage divides, this elevation is exceeded, and there are 

 innumerable local depressions which scarcely reach 4,000 

 feet ; but north of the 37th parallel- there are few places 

 below this elevation. 



