82 The American Geologist. February, 1902. 
The small exposures about the Pinos Wells basin show 
Feet. 
Teipitte. GG /¢ 5. o40s 00 cue > np hae see 8 
Yellowish: fo: white Barlds <i set eee cee eee 12-15 
Red: Sagas». ,\s's0.sce's ge 0 sie sien canes aa 25-30 
Impure: Fine ois osc oh swab eben eee eer al eee 3-5 
Red ‘sands. ;'n oo cote se eee nee nee ee 30-40 or more 
In the red sands about the basin fifteen miles northeast of 
Pinos Wells there is a very prominent band of pure white amor- 
phous gypsum, 1 to 1% feet in thickness. 
It will appear from the foregoing that the saline basins in 
and east of the Antonio Sandoval grant occur in that portion 
of the Red Beds which we have referred to the Permian. It is 
possible that the horizon exposed in the lakes north of the 
southern Dog lake may be a little below the base of what 
may be properly called the Red Beds, but it can be but a few 
feet at most. Certainly the horizon is above the Manzano 
group in the lime series, and at or below the prominent gypsum 
horizon at the base of the chocolate series. That these saline 
and alkaline basins should prove to be of Permian age is not 
surprising, but was to be expected from what has been seen 
of the Red Beds elsewhere in the Territory.+ 
Concerning the lakes themselves little is to be said apart 
from a discussion of the chemical composition of their waters 
and deposits. In the Antonio Sandoval basin almost all of the 
lakes are surrounded by embankments or dunes of white adobe 
o_O 
— ee ———— ———_ oOo 
ort ert eee re ere, 
= 
Saline clays Bnd Gye henee 
TYPICAL SECTION THROUGH A SALT LAKE. 
(Vertical scale greatly exaggerated.) 
soil, rising from twenty-five to fifty feet above the level of the 
plains. From a distance these embankments have ,the appear- 
ance of low white sand hills, and not until we had ascended 
*Bull, Geol. Sur., Univ’ N. Mex., vol. ii, Geology of the White Sands, C. L. 
HERRICK, p. 4. Also conclusion of an article on the Literature of the Permian. 
D. W. JOHNSON, and other papers of vol. ii, passim. 
+Bull. Geol. Surv., Univ. N. Mex., vol. ii, Geological Reconnoissance in 
Western Socorro and Valencia counties, and also Geology of the White Sands, 
C. L. HERRICK. 
