MOJAYE RIVER-SODA LAKE-GREAT BASIN. 
53 
THE GREAT BASIN. 
The valley of the Soda lake, reached hy the survey on the 8th of March, Camp 142, is 
within the limits of the Great Basin. It receives the last flowing water of the Mojave river, 
now celebrated among the explorers of the country from the different opinions which have 
been held in respect to its course and continuous flow to the Colorado. It was a problem which 
has only recently been solved by the survey of Lieutenant Williamson, who was commissioned 
to make a special exploration beyond his direct line of survey for this purpose. This officer 
reports that the valley of the Mojave is continuous to the dry lake called Soda lake, and which 
is surrounded by mountains through which there is no outlet for a stream to the valley of the 
Colorado. It was thus shown that the Mojave is not a tributary of the Colorado, but a river 
without a connexion with the sea, and sinking in the dry sands of the Basin. Under the 
supposition that the Mojave was a tributary of the Colorado, the southern limits of the Great 
Basin were considered to be further north than was at first supposed, and a dividing rid°-e 
extending like a wall from east to west, near the parallel of 38°, found a place upon the maps. 
The establishment, by actual survey, of the fact that the Mojave did not communicate with the 
Colorado, at once restored the former boundaries of the Basin. 
The Soda lake is probably the lowest point in the whole extent of the Basin, and is much 
below its general surface. Its altitude, as determined by the survey, is 1,116 feet, while the 
general elevation of surface in the southern part of the Basin is not less than 3,000 feet. The 
level but dry expanse of this £ ‘ lake” was whitened by a thick incrustation of soluble salts. 
On digging a few inches below the surface, an abundance of water was found. This was 
VALLEY OF THE MOJAVE. 
rocks, and the prevailing sandy-brown color of the whole surface, afford a strange contrast to 
the green fields and forests which clothe the rocks and soil in the Atlantic States. 
