Re: "Sink Of The Amargosa River"
Posted by Tumbleweed on May 12, 2003 at 13:06:49:
In Reply to: "Sink Of The Amargosa River" posted by James on May 12, 2003 at 12:43:35:
I ran across this in what I believe is a 1911 encyclopedia. Link below for entire site:
Another peculiar and very general feature of the drainage system of the state is the presence of numerous so-called river “sinks,” where the -waters disappear, either directly by evaporation or (as in Death ‘Valley) after flowing for a time beneath ~he surface. These “sinks” are therefore not the true sinks of limestone regions. The popular 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.