Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-03-15
NUMBER 1873.

!
time for the full strength of the daily
sea-breeze, and SO repeatedly that the
plaintive remark is often heard, off
only our rain-current will continue
until the turn of the evening we shall
escape the west wind and we are
then certain of another days rain"
WHAT'S the cause of this interruption?
Simply this: back of those mountains
is the desert. All day it is heating up
with the sun. When afternoon comes
it is probably forty degrees hotter than
the ocean on the west. Then the cold
sea air rushes in through every break
in the mountain chain to take the
place of this rarified atmosphere,
forcing back with it the clouds whose
moisture is quickly dissipated by the
scorching breath of the sands. So con-
slant and powerful is this wind cur
rent that the trees in the San Gorge
MO Pass are all blown from the per-
pendicular, and slant toward the east.
The same warning of the winds is
seen again in the months of July and
August. Los Angeles, San Bernar-
dino and San Diego counties are real
ly within the circuit of the Sonora
rains. Again comes the southeast
wind, but more gently than in Win
ter. Now it seems to follow rather up
the course of the gulf, and from there
passes over westward. Again the
clouds gather upon the mountain tops.
Light showers fall, even heavy rains,
in the San Bernardino mountains.
Thunder and lightning are frequent.
But the disturbing influence Of the
Colorado Desert again makes itself
felt In Winter it was hot. Now it
is fiery furnace. 1t glows and wav-
ers with ever increasing heat; with
out water, without life. Day knows
no respite; night brings no freshness,
1929, even 1902 are recorded. The rains
have travelled up the gulf. They have
refreshed Sonora and Lower Califor-
MIA. Arizona has grown green. They
have followed the Colorado river far to
the north. They have even turned
the upper end of the Colorado Desert,
and sent occasional floods upon the
higher and cooler Mohave Desert, and
in the mountains about Tehachapi.
They have gone to the south of the
great fertile plains of Los Angeles and
San Bernaldino; they have skirted
the western edge of Arizora back of
them; they have spent their strength
upon the mountains north of them.
Why have these rains gone all around
the only extensive fertile portion of
Southern California, and yet avoided
it as forbidden land? Because to
reach it they must cross the Colorado
Desert, and its fiery breath is to them
the blast of death. Should they cross
1t; should other rain currents follow
up the coast from the south, the cold
wind of the ocean, rushing in to dis
place the overheated air of the desert,
beats them back, and SO the land has
no rain.
Could that desert be refilled with
from a dry, hot sand
to an inland lake-the very heat which
Is reflected from the barren mountain
sides around would be power of good
instead of evil. The constant evapo-
ration would render heat latent which
is now active, thus lowering the an
nual temperature very perceptibly.
This lowering of temperature alone,
even if unaccompanied by an increase
of moisture in the air, would give
greater rainfall by the more perfect
which it would cause.
But the evaporation from the surface
Of the lake would materially augment
the supply of vapor in the rain cur
rents, thus acting in double manner
"a decrease in temperature and an in
crease of moisture for precipitation.
These rain currents would also meet
with less difficulty in making their
way against the ocean winds-as these
winds, caused largely by the heat of
the desert, would be less violent-and
would therefore, with more certainty
and regularity, deposit their supply of
moisture over the plains of Los An
geles, San Bernardino and San Diego.
When it is considered that every adj
ditional inch of rain is worth millions
Of dollars to these southern counties,
the value of such change in quantity
and certainty of fall may be appreci-
ated.
The difference in the Summer eli
mate would be especially marked.
The flood season of the Colorado river
is from April to September. The flood
is caused by the melting of the SHOWS
in the Rocky Mountains, where the
river has its source. The water still
retains much of its GOODNESS when it
reaches the gulf. The lake in the
desert would be at its highest, filled
with cold snow water, just in the hot
test portion of the year. All the in
fluence at work to modify the Winter
rain would now act with double pow
err, and the Summer rains would prob
ably become as reliable in the noun
tains of Southern California as they
now are in the mountains of Arizona.
Streams which are used for irrigation
would have their flow augmented;
other streams which now only furnish
water in the Winter, would become
permanent during the year. The graz
ing lands in the mountains and
among the foothills would furnish
much more abundant and certain pas
turage. The hot, dry winds which now
come at times from the desert, would
be cool and laden with vapor.
There is satisfactory evidence that
such difference once did exist in the
climate of the territory surrounding
the Colorado Desert, at time when it
was still portion of the Gulf of Cali
The evidence further shows
that this difference must have been
caused by the presence of such body
of water where now none exists. If
the old bed could be filled from the
river, is it unreasonable to suppose
that the same cause would again work
the same result? 1t might be rash
assertion to say that the work of refill
ing the desert Is possibility. 1t
might be equally rash to assert that
the water of the Colorado would be
sufficient for the purpose. Yet men
who have travelled much and seen
much upon the desert think the pro-
ect feasible. If 1t were done, enough
land could probably be reclaimed by
irrigation from the alluvial deposit at
The south and of the dasart 70 q nn,,lxr