434 University of California Publications. [Geology 



the east side out through the rocky gorge at Cameron to the 

 Mohave Desert, the position of the stream upon its fan being 

 unstable and fluctuating. Usually the lake has no outlet and 

 the waters are strongly saline. It is said that deposits of salts 

 have been worked in the clays which underlie the lake to a depth 

 of 8 feet. Occasionally, however, the lake appears to overflow 

 around the lower edge of the Cache Creek fan into the gorge 

 leading out to Mohave. 



The depth of the alluvial infilling of the valley is not known. 

 Certain wells that have bene sunk indicate that it is by no means 

 a shallow veneer. A well sunk for water on the railway about 

 three-quarters of a mile above Cameron at the extreme east end 

 of the valley passed through 125 feet of alluvial gravel, sand, 

 and clay without reaching solid rock. On Spencer's ranch a well 

 was sunk for water on the northwest quarter of Section 34, 

 Tp. 32 S., R. 33 E. This well is said by the driller to have passed 

 through 10 feet of black clayey loam, then 125 feet of yellow 

 clay with fine gravel, and then through 30 feet of gravel with 

 coarse boulders at the bottom up to 10 inches in diameter. At 

 this depth no water was found and for practical reasons the 

 well was abandoned. Another well was sunk in the immediate 

 neighborhood, to a depth of 344 feet through gravelly sandy and 

 clayey alluvium, water being found at a depth of 248 feet and 

 rising in the well to within 120 feet of the surface. In this well 

 very few pebbles were found larger than one's fist and only 

 rarely was a boulder found as large as a man's head. The 

 writer visited the well and examined the material that had been 

 taken from it. The well is situated less than a mile north of 

 the base of the steep mountain slope which bounds the valley 

 on the south. We have thus in the record of this well evidence 

 that the alluviation of the valley reaches a depth of not less 

 than 344 feet. Several wells have been sunk in the town of 

 Tehaehapi, and these are said to yield water first at a depth of 

 35 feet and again at about 90 feet below the surface. One well, 

 however, is said to have been sunk to a depth of 166 feet, mostly 

 in clayey alluvium with gravel at the bottom. The alluvial floor 

 of the valley is in part suitable for cultivation, and the greater 

 part of it is fenced for ranch purposes, but there are probably 



