OENTEAL AND EASTERN NEVADA. 445 



SECTION VI. 



EGAN CANON DISTRICT. 



BY S. F. EMMONS. 



The Egan Mountains form the first high range east of the East Hum- 

 boldt Mountains, their highest point attaining an elevation of 10,490 feet above 

 the level of the sea. They are mainly composed of stratified limestone, rich 

 in fossils of the Carboniferous period, and having a general dip to the west- 

 ward. About fifteen miles south of the latitude of Camp Ruby, and perhaps^ 

 thirty miles east of that point, the range widens out into two distinct ridges, 

 which extend to the south, inclosing between them a pretty mountain valley, 

 eight or ten miles long, and about a mile wide. This valley is 200 feet above 

 the level of Butte Valley, and about 500 feet above Steptoe Valley, which lie, 

 the one on the west, the other on the east of the Egan Mountains. It gives 

 access to a very considerable amount of timber, with which the surrounding 

 hills are well covered, consisting chiefly of juniper and pinon, useful for fuel, and 

 some yellow pine and fir, which furnish mining and building timber. Besides 

 several springs, the valley has a small stream, fed by the melting of the snow on 

 the high peaks to the southeast, which runs northward along its eastern edge, 

 and finds an outlet into Steptoe Valley through a narrow, precipitous gorge in 

 the eastern ridge at the northeastern extremity of the valley. This gorge is 

 Egan or Gold Canon, which gives its name to the district ; through it the Over- 

 land Stage road descends into Steptoe Valley, by which it is about 240 miles from 

 here to Salt Lake City. A road running north through Steptoe Valley reaches 

 the railroad at Toano, about 90 miles distant. At the entrance to the canon, 

 and on the grassy bottom of the valley just above it, is the little mining town 

 of the same name, 6,379 feet above sea level. 



Geology. — The ridge west of the valley is composed of strata of a blu- 

 ish-gray limestone, dipping gently west, the regular continuation of the north- 

 ern portion of the range, while the eastern ridge has an entirely different 

 character, being composed of granite, quartzites, and slates, the latter uptilted 



