name is applied to Owen's lake, at the end of
Owen's river; to Mono lake, into which flow various streams rising in
the Sierra between Mount Dana and Castle Peak; and to Death Valley,
which contains the "sink" of the Amargosa river, and evidently was once
an extensive lake, although now only a mud-flat in ordinary winters, and
a dry, alkaline, desert plain in summer. All these lakes, and the other
mountain lakes before referred to, show by the terraces about them that
the water stood during the glacial period much higher than it does now.
Tulare lake, which with Buena Vista lake and Kern lake receives the
drainage of the southern Sierra, shows extreme local variations of
shore-line, and is generally believed to have shrunk extremely since
1850, though of this no adequate proof yet exists. In 1900 it was about
200 sq. m. in area. In wet seasons it overflows its banks and becomes
greatly extended in area, discharging its surplus waters into the San
Joaquin; but in dry seasons the evaporation is so great that there is no
such discharge. The drainage of Lassen, Siskiyou and Modoc counties has
no outlet to the sea and is collected in a number of great alkaline
lakes.

Finally along the sea below Pt. Conception are fertile coastal plains of
considerable extent, separated from the interior deserts by various
mountain ranges from 5000 to 7000 ft. high, and with peaks much higher
(San Bernardino, 11,600; San Jacinto, 10,800; San Antonio, 10,140).
Unlike the northern Sierra, the ranges of Southern California are broken
down in a number of places. It is over these passes--Soledad, 2822 ft.,
Cajon, San Gorgonio, 2560 ft.--that the railways cross to the coast.
That part of California which lies to the south and east of the southern
inosculation of the Coast Range and the Sierra comprises an area of
fully 50,000 sq. m., and belongs to the Basin Range region. For the most
part it is excessively dry and barren. The Mohave desert--embracing
Kern, Los Angeles and San Bernardino, as also a large part of San Diego,
Imperial and Riverside counties--belong to the "Great Basin," while a
narrow strip along the Colorado river is in the "Open Basin Region."
They have no drainage to the sea, save fitfully for slight areas through
the Colorado river. The Mohave desert is about 2000 ft. above the sea in
general altitude. The southern part of the Great Basin region is vaguely
designated the Colorado desert. In San Diego, Imperial and Riverside
coun