WEST DDMBOLDT EANGE. 713 



SECTION V. 

 WEST HUMBOLDT REGION. 



BY ARNOLD HAGUE. 



West Humboldt Range.' — The West Humboldt or Koipato Range 

 lies intermediate between the Pah-Ute and Montezuma Ranges, and extends 

 from latitude 39° 50' to latitude 40° 40'. Like the" Pah-Ute and Havallah 

 Ranges to the eastward, it rises somewhat abruptly above the Pliocene and 

 Quaternary beds of the Humboldt Valley, and extends in a southwest 

 direction for 70 miles, falling away in low volcanic hills, which jut out 

 toward the Carson Desert, in the region of Mirage Lake. The range has its 

 greatest expansion east of the town of Oreana, on the Central Pacific Rail- 

 road, where it is 15 miles wide, but to the north or south it scarcely reaches 

 more than 12 miles. Directly east of Oreana, the range is seen to be 

 divided by a valley diagonal to its strike, that is, having a northwest and 

 southeast direction, which literally separates the range into two portions. 



The northern half of the range has a nearly meridional trend, and is by 

 far the more prominent portion, the summit being formed of a high, nar- 

 row ridge, with culminating points that attain elevations but a few hundred 

 feet above the general crest. Star Peak, with an elevation of 9,925 "feet 

 above sea-level, is not only the highest point in the West Humboldt Range, 

 but also of this portion of Nevada. Buffalo Peak, 20 miles to the south- 

 ward, measures 8,387 feet, while Spring Valley Pass, the lowest depression 

 in the northern half of the range, is at its summit 6,250 feet above sea- 

 level. Topographically, it is a simple ridge, with the axis near the centre 

 of the uplift, from which numerous canons, with broad basin-like heads, 

 becoming rapidly narrower as they descend, cut the mountain- slopes at 

 nearly equal distances. Nearly all these canons furnish constant streams, 

 many of them on the eastern side, notably in Star, Coyote, and Buena 

 Vista Cations, running far out on the Quaternary plains. Timber is quite 



'Ju part from notes furnished by Mr. Clarence King. 



