34 BULLETIN 54, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



The area now tributary to the Big Smoky playa is probably not over 1,000 square 

 miles, but the addition of the area to the north cut off by stream decay makes a total 

 of 2,140 square mile. With the Kingston Basin, which was formerly tributary to it 

 and is described below, the total area is 3,325 square miles, which was probably the 

 drainage area of the valley during the Lahontan period. 



THE KINGSTON BASIN. 



The Kingston Basin occupies the northern tip of the eastern trough of the Big Smoky 

 Basin, as above described. The separation from the Big Smoky is by an alluvial 

 divide of uncertain age, but which the writer regards as recent. The floor of the 

 basin cames a chain of local playas of greater or lesser size, lying along what was 

 probably the old drainage line. These playas are separated from one another by 

 alluvial divides mostly very low and inconspicuous. Their basins have not been 

 individually traced or computed. The total area of the Kingston Basin, including 

 all the local playas north of the. main alluvial divide, is 1,190 square miles, all of 

 which seems to have been formerly tributary to the Big Smoky Basin. 



THE EDWARDS CREEK BASIN. 



The Edwards Creek Basin lies east of the Dixie Basin above described and between 

 the Clan Alpine Mountains on the west and the Desatoya-New Pass Range on the east. 

 The surrounding divides are all well defined and mountainous, except at the south 

 end. This southern divide, while superficially alluvial, seems to be fundamentally 

 structural, and the writer regards it also as pre-Lahontan. The Edwards Creek Basin 

 has probably long been landlocked. 



The basin now receives the drainageof the northern end of "the Smiths Creek Valley 

 and it seems probable that it once received the entire drainage of this valley, as 

 described below. The lowest depression is a playa about 15 square miles in area and 

 not known to be especially saline. There are a few suggestions of old lake strands 

 about the walls of the valley, but these are by no means unmistakable. The present 

 drainage area of the basin is about 490 square miles. With the Smiths CreeK basin 

 the total is 990 square miles. 



THE SMITHS CREEK BASIN. 



The Smiths Creek Basin occupies the northern tip of the western trough of the Big 

 Smoky Basin as described on page 33. Its past and even its present drainage rela- 

 tions are not certainly known. It seems that it is limited at both ends by alluvial 

 divides. The southern of these is between 300 and 400 feet above the valley floor 

 and forms the separation from the lone Valley, a present tributary of the Big Smoky 

 Basin. To the north the end of the valley is structurally defined, but the extreme 

 north end of the structural trough drains westward through the narrow gap of New 

 Pass Canyon and does not belong hydrographically to the Smiths Creek Basin. This 

 northern end is separated from the main body of the Smiths Creek Valley by a low 

 divide which the writer has not examined and concerning which no information is 

 available. It is probable that it is low and alluvial and that the Smiths Creek Basin 

 discharged over it and through New Pass Canyon into the Edwards Creek Basin above 

 described. If this be true the playa, which now occupies about 23 square miles in 

 the Smiths Creek Valley, must be of quite recent origin. The total present drainage 

 area of the Smiths Creek Basin is about 500 square miles. 



THE GOLDFIELD BASIN. 



The Goldfield Basin lies west of the town of Goldfield and occupies what is struc- 

 ttirally a southward extension of the eastern trough of the Big Smoky. It is cut off 

 from the latter basin by an alluvial divide about 500 feet above the bottom of the 



