Great Basin

a remarkable triangular plateau_of North America, occupying the W. portion of Utah and nearly the whole of Nevada, as well as a section of Oregon and California, and extending at its N. E. angle into Idaho, It is bounded on the W. by the Sierra Nevada, and on the BH. by the Wahsatch Mountains. The base of the triangle, in the N., is some 500 miles from E. to W.; it extends from N. to 8. for nearly 800 miles, and its area is slightly greater than that of France. It is girdled round on every side by high mountains, and traversed throughout by numerous ranges, frequently parallel, yet as often irregularly blending or cro ing; the valleys are usually sinks, the chief drainage center being Great Salt Lake and the Humboldt and Carson sinks,. at about the same elevation. The plateau is nearly destitute of trees, and in general only the upper parts of the valley are clothed with desert shrubs, their lower portions often being occupied either by bodies of water or by a muddy bottom covered with several inches’ depth of alkaline salts left by evaporation.