campbell.] GEOLOGY ALONG ROUTE TRAVERSED. IV) 
Mesquite Valley. — In the northern end of Death Valley proper no 
lake beds were seen. The bottom of the valley is covered by an alka- 
line marsh, and this is surrounded by a sloping surface composed of 
the debris from the mountains. The line dividing Death Valley from 
Mesquite Valley is composed of Ioav cliffs of lake sediments which 
appear to reach back under recent deposits, forming the floor of Mes- 
quite Valley. These beds strike northwest and southeast and dip 
toward the northeast, as do the sediments on Furnace Creek; in fact, 
they appear originally to have been continuous, but with the connect- 
ing part in Death Valley now depressed below the drainage level, 
leaving the two outcrops separate but with similar strike and dip. No 
borax beds were seen in this region, but the strata have much the same 
appearance as the Furnace Creek beds, and careful search may reveal 
similar mineral contents. The available area of outcrop, however, is 
small, and hence extensive deposits need not be anticipated. 
Panamint Mountain. — The route from Mesquite Valley lay to the 
south, up Emigrant Canyon, which divides the Panamint Range into 
two parts that are structurally and topographically separate and dis- 
tinct. At an altitude of about 2,700 feet above sea level great accu- 
mulations of well-rounded gravel were encountered, which are a com- 
mon feature from this point to the summit of the mountain, that stands 
at an altitude of about 5,200 feet. The origin of these deposits is a 
puzzling question. They are distinctly bedded, and the bedding planes 
dip 10° toward the east. They are interstratified with lava sheets 
which dip in the same direction, and with beds of white volcanic ash. 
These beds are traversed by many vertical faults, which can be seen 
distinctly where there is local induration of the gravel or where there 
occurs a bed of foreign material, as lava or volcanic ash. 
From the traces of bedding in the gravel itself and from the bed of 
volcanic ash resting conformably upon the gravel beds, it seems prob- 
able that the deposit was laid down in water, and that its present alti- 
tude and disturbed condition are due to elevation and tilting of the 
block of strata upon which they rest. Since the dip of the Paleozoic 
strata composing this block, as well as of the gravel resting upon it, 
is toward the east, it seems possible that the block may have turned 
on a horizontal fulcrum, the eastern edge sinking and forming Death 
Valley and the western edge rising and forming Panamint .Mountain. 
This hypothesis receives some support from the character of the 
topography of the mountain top. On the east side of the summit, 
at an altitude of about 4, TOO feet, there is a wide flat. The basin is 
several miles in extent, and it looks like an ordinary stretch of desert 
transplanted to the summit of a rugged mountain. This topography 
does not resemble that of other mountains in this district. It appears 
to be old, and certainly leads to the belief that it was very recently 
elevated to its present position. 
