34 BULLETIN 54, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
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 carries 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 drainage of the northern end of the Smiths Creek Valley 
and it seems probabie 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 Ione 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- 
turally 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 
