bolson U.S.
(ˈbəʊlsən, ‖ bolˈson)
[Sp., augmentative of bolsa purse.]
In the south-western U.S. and Mexico, a basin-shaped depression surrounded by mountains. Also bolson-plain.
| 1838 A. Ganilh Mexico v. Texas 9 A desert known, in the maps [of Mexico], under the name of ‘Bolson of Mapimi’. 1847 G. F. Ruxton Adv. Mexico xiii. 96 The sun was fast sinking behind the rugged crest of the ‘Bolson’, tinging the serrated ridge..with a golden flood of light. 1904 Amer. Geol. Sept. 164 The bolson plains may be considered as sections of an upraised peneplain surface in its earliest infancy, at a stage in which they are as yet untouched by stream-action. 1964 F. O'Rourke Mule for Marquesa 15 It would be..the Bolsón, ten thousand square miles of the high desert, cupped within the waterless mountains. |