DEATH VALLEY, a depressed basin in Inyo county, Calif. The name commemorates the fate of a party of "forty-niners" who perished here, by thirst or by starvation and exposure. The ex ceedingly arid Death Valley region lies immediately north of the Mojave desert and then stretches east from the Sierra Nevada mountains, covering a large part of Inyo county and extending into Nevada. The valley proper, which is some 5o m. long and on an average 20 to 25 m. broad from the crests of the enclosing moun tain ranges, is below sea-level (2 8o ft.). This is the lowest point on the continent and in a direct line it is less than 8o m. E. of Mt. Whitney, 14,495 ft. high, the highest peak in the United States. The mountains about it are high and bare, and brilliant with varied colours. The Amargosa river, entering the valley through a deep canyon at the south, disappears in the basin, leaving the surface crusted with white salts. The fact that this limited region is the final area of concentration for a very extensive drainage system is thought to explain the extent and supposed depth of the depos its of salt, borax and nitrate of soda found in the basin. Death Valley is one of the hottest regions in the world. The minimum daily temperature in summer is rarely below 7o° F (in the shade) ; the maximum may, for days in succession, be as high as 120°, and the U.S. Weather Bureau has recorded an extreme of 134°.
See W. C. Mendenhall, "Some Desert Watering Places in South-east ern California and South-western Nevada," U.S. Geological Survey, Water Supply Paper No. 224.
a term used in psychical research for an intimation of the death of another person received by other than the ordinary sensory channels, i.e., by (I) a sensory hallucination or (2) a massive sensation, both being of telepathic origin. (See TELEPATHY.) Both among civilized and uncivil ized peoples there is a widespread belief that the apparition of a living person is an omen of death; but until the Society of Psychical Research undertook the statistical examination of the question, there were no data for estimating the value of the belief.
(See HALLUCINATION.)