A cemented basin has been constructed to catch the rain water that falls during the winter season, with which it is intended to work the placer mines. The discoverers of these mines, it is said, took enough gold from the gulches, in making the basin referred to, with a dry washer, to pay for making and cementing the basin. COTTONWOOD SPRINGS. Twenty-six miles in a northeast direction from Walters Station, on the line of the S. P. R. R., at an altitude of 3,004 feet, is Cottonwood Springs. A range of mountains, in which occur granitic and metamorphic rocks and eruptive dikes, strikes east and west across the desert, and in these occur several springs. There is but one mine in the immediate vicinity of the springs, and this is known as THE COYOTE MINE, Where a reading of the aneroid indicated 3,300 feet. The formation in which the Coyote vein has formed is micaceous and hornblende schist and gneissoid rock; hornblende granite and dikes of diorite also occur in the vicinity of the vein. The Coyote Mine is a quartz vein from 2 to 4 feet in width. The rock is iron stained and occasionally shows free gold. The vein is developed by two shafts, one about 20 and the other nearly 80 feet in depth, and strikes 5° north of east, having a dip of 46° to the south. The vein appeared to cut the formation at a small angle. A fault, which has occurred within the vein, had evidently puzzled the owners, as at the bottom of the 20-foot shaft they had developed 8 feet of what looked like solid quartz. The vein is really but 4 feet in width at that point, but the fault cutting downward at an angle of 45° and crossing the strike of the vein at an angle of 27° had allowed the hanging wall side of the fault to slip downward, thus doubling the width of quartz, which was much shattered. The miners had quit work, leaving what they considered well enough alone. In the deeper shaft the fault had carried the hanging wall down and to the east a few feet, and the vein was lost altogether. A short drift had been run into the hanging wall, but not finding the vein, work had been suspended. The vein lies on the foot wall side and not more than 4 or 5 feet from the line of the slip. [Illustration: _FAULT OF COYOTE MINE COTTONWOOD SPRINGS_] SALTON LAKE. By E. B. Preston, E.M., Assistant in the Field.