Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1873-12-23
THE COLORADO DESERT.
From the San Bernardino Guardian.

oi deorees north latitude, and the merl-
S;.ns ia aud 1l6 degrees west. 1t is,
" tact. the southwestern corner of Cali
snrn;a .n Its western boundary is the ST.
va. its northern and eastern margins
ers formed by spur or branch range of
.ho Sierras starting from near Mount
Can Bernardino, running easterly some
,nrtv 'n miles and thence bending south
dosterly and southerly, and falling away
info the lower and lower hills until it
asttens out into barren plains near Fort
Yuma. On the south it opens up through
a Gradual ascent upon the head of the
Gnlf of California. Its width varies
from thirty to forty miles. and its aver
ace length is something over a hundred
and twenty-five miles. What is it? Prob
obly. if not unquestionably, il is the old
he'd or bottom of the Gulf Of California
which once extended at least hundred
and fifty miles northwesterly beyond it's
present limits.
Its surface has gradual assent from |
the northerly end, to the present sandy
shore Of the gulf, its temporary limit. In
n very able, ingenious and interesting
article by DR.. J. p. Widney, of Los An
qeles, published in the Overland Month |
" for January of the present year, he
thinks that the Colorado, entering the |
east side of the ancient gulf, nearly q |
hundred and fifty miles above its head, |
brought down millions of tons Of quick |
sand and thick red mud, which gradu- |
ally formed an immense shoal and, in |
time, delta, which after many years,
stretched quite across to the opposite |
shore of the gulf, which was narrow at
nf "a Aaz
upper hundred and fifty miles Of the
gulf and changed it into a large, shallow
lake. This lake, receiving neither rain
fall nor rivers sufficient to replace its
loss by the evaporation of this extremely
hot locality, finally dried completely
away and left its sandy bed desert
basin.
This annual alluvial deposit has stead
lily increased the distance between the
river bed and the southern margin of the
old, lake bed desert, till it has formed a
neck of land nearly forty miles wide,
lying but slightly above the sea.
The taking away of such an immense
body of water, presenting over five thou
sand square miles Of surface, constantly
subjected to an extremely rapid evapora-
ton, must have made the climate much
dryer and hotter, for one or two hundred
miles east or west--that is through south
en California and western Arizona.
That this is exactly what did take place,
on one side at least, western Arizona fur
nshes two conclusive proofs:
|. The ruins of cities once large and
populous, and the remains of wide aud
deep canals for extensive systems of irri
CATION.
2. Remains of old forests evidently
dead from want Of moisture.
II any one questions the modifying
influence Of evaporation upon climate,
let him consider the fact, given in the
published proceedings OF the Bombay
Geographical Society, that the annual
evaporation of the Bay of Bengal is more
than sixteen feet! But this upper part of
the old Gulf of California, fanked on
both sides by high mountains, whose
steeply-sloping sides daily reflected an
amount of heat which greatly increased
the evaporating power of the suns direct
rays, must have lost proportionately
greater amount. Assuming, however,
for the sake of safe argument, that its
evaporation only equaled that of the Bay
OF Bengal we should have an amount of
vapor which, il condensed and precipi-
tated. would supply twelve inches of rain
over S6,400 square miles, an area more
than double that of the entire State Of
Ohio, and more than half of the land
surface Of all California.
Submerge the desert again; make it
once more the bottom of vast lake, an
inland sea, in fact, sending up thousands
Of tons of vapor every day, cooling the
nyerlyipo and uurroupdino mir for hun
dreds of miles, and thus causing the pre-
cipitation of large part of the vapor
now held in suspension by the ocean
winds. This would restore not only the
humidity but the mildness OF those eli
matic conditions which once made fertile
thousands Of leagues now desert for more
than q hundred years, but which under
the restoration of former conditions,
might and would bud and blossom
again, as surely as cause produces
effect
The dampness of the atmosphere thu.
increased, and the lower temperature
thus secured, would have yet another
and most beneficial effect. They would
retard and diminish the evaporation o
the rains which do fall, and the create
rain which would fall, over the adjacen
country. This would work three goot
results: /. A milder climate. 2. A
molster soil. 3. More springs and
streams.
How could the present desert b.
Hooded again? In either one of tw,
ways:
l. By Il canal from the present head OF
The gulf across the forty miles of sant
which now separates the present head o
the gulf from its old bed which is nov
the desert. This would be extremely diff
ncult and costly, If not imprscticable, no
only on account of the great length ant
width required, but on account of tht
constant sand.drift which would contin
aally tend to fill the canal again. Then
100, the action of the river and gul
waves would tend to obstruct the gul
end OF the canal, and to increase tn
wiath OF the sandy belt or isthmus acros
which 1t would be cut. This plan woul,
restore the desert to its old condition o
asalt water lake. 1t has been often sug
gested and strongly advocated.
- Open canal from the Colorado
river into the desert, turn the river int
,ne desert and thus make it fresh waite
lake. During the food season of the las
twenty years the river has been doin
tais itself. This natural annual over
now already forms stream hundre,
Yards wide and four feet deep. with
srong current, which pours SO mucl
water into the desert as to make lax
several miles across, but 40 shallow tina
1t dries up in few weeks after the sui
sldence Of the floods in the main rive
cuts of its supply.
COmparot;vai- l:kklo ..t:e.:.I l,ol
would turn the whole volume OF the Co
orado into this new channel, which woul
nent.
o. Combine the two projects; open tn
Hanals Tn from both the guilt and the rive
ans ms would insure an ample and speed
ulllO0 nj tho laco~k ,,,,kL AooI x.,hso