PAHUTE MESA. 13 £ 
Reefs of silicified rhyolite similar to that of the Kawich Range 
occur south of Belted Peak. The alteration of the rhyolite is strik- 
ingly like that at Silverbow, Eden, and other mining camps situated 
in rhyolite, and the ground is worthy of prospecting. Over a con- 
siderable area east and southeast of Belted Peak, near the boundary 
of the area mapped, the rhyolite appears in a distant view from its 
color and topography to be much altered. 
PAHUTE MESA. 
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY. 
The name Pahute Mesa is applied to the lava-capped table-land 
stretching from Stonewall Mountain on the northwest to the Belted 
Range on the southeast, a distance of 48 miles. The mesa is 12 miles 
wide except near its center, where Tolicha Peak cuts it into two por- 
tions. Notwithstanding this break these divisions are so similar, 
both topographically and geologically, that it is convenient to de- 
scribe them under a single name. 
Pahute Mesa consists of a series of benches one above another, the 
surfaces of which are determined by resistant flows of lava (PI. II, 
A). These level benches are trenched deeply by canyons, while hills 
of older rocks and cones, the vents of the lavas, rise from their sur- 
faces. Southeast of Stonewall Mountain the mesa has an average 
elevation of 5,500 feet. It gains in altitude to the southeast and near 
the Belted Range the highest mesa bench is 7,500 feet high. The 
?outhward-facing scarp is 1,500 feet high. 
The western portion of the mesa is without \ T egetation other than 
sage and related shrubbery and the yucca. The higher portions of 
he eastern edge are, on the other hand, covered with a fairly heavy 
rowth of piiion and juniper, and grass grows luxuriantly in the 
igher valleys, making this portion of Pahute Mesa the best winter 
ange in the area mapped. The mesa has no large springs, Pillar 
Spring containing less than 50 gallons of water. A well sunk in a 
::anyon 3 miles north of east of Gold Center yields about 300 gallons 
)f water a day. It is 00 feet deep and passes through Recent gravels 
nto tuffaceous sediments beneath the basalt. Tanks are common 
m the surface of the mesa, but in summer, with one probable excep- 
ion, these are dry. A little bad water can be procured, probably 
hroughout the year, by digging in the gravels at Ammonia Tanks. 
3n account of the lack of water Pahute Mesa is more dangerous in 
summer than Death Valley. 
GENERAL GEOLOGY. 
| On account of its inaccessibility and the comparative simplicity of 
'Its geology, but little time was devoted to the mapping of this region. 
While many inaccuracies exist in the geologic boundaries as here laid 
