Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-16
The InundatiOn Will Form
a Permanent Lake.
Salton Basin Will Inevitably
Fill to Sea Level.
Facts About the Phenomena on the
Colorado Desert.
Information Obtained by the "Heraid's''
Special Correspondent-The Colo
RADIO Even at Its Lowest Still
Flows Into the Desert.

A,
help them who help themselves" is an
ancient proverb that is receiving a new
illustration in Southern California. For
many years the good people of this ex-
treme southwestern end of Uncle Sam
uel's dominions have been industriously
advertising their section. By newspa-
pers, pamphlets, letters, exhibits, excur-
sions, and in score of ways have its
merits been prominently brought to the
attention of the great beehive of hui
manity on, the Atlantic coast, and
hither has its overcrowded population
been invited to come. where there is yet
plenty of room for all, and make for
themselves "a local habitation and a
name." Admiring the persistency and
industry manifested by the sons of men
in reclaiming the "barren hills' of this
fair land, the gods of fire, earth and
water have in high council determined
to come to their aid, and not only help
them to advertise the country, but also
to restore to man for his sole use and
benefit large portion of land hitherto
not even fit for the coyote and the In
dian.
First, the gods of water changed the
channel of the Colorado river and
poured over half its great flood into the
desert and set the world agog. Presto !!
The scene changes and the gods of fire
and land direct attention of mankind to
the Lower Colorado country by their
pranks in earthquakes and volcanoes,
harmless to extent and size. There can
no longer be any reasonable doubt that
greater physical change is now taking
place in Southern California, and for the
better.
The Colorado desert stretches from
80 degrees latitude north to 81 degrees,
and is between 3S degrees and 40 de-
grees longitude west from Washington,
and has an area of more than 5000
square miles. OF this area about 5000
square miles is below the level of the
sea. varying in depth from 100 to 800
feet. There was time in the far
past when this great depression
was an arm of the Gulf of
California, which then extended
northward to the neighborhood of
Indio, and the mouth of the Colorado
river was then just below Yuma. The
sediment of the river gradually built up
the country southwark, and eventually
the gulf was cut off from the desert sea,
and the latter was dried up, but was
probably renewed at intervals by tenn
porary floods from the river. The nat
ural result was that what must have
been fertile country. which surrounded
the Colorado sea, became sterile when
its supply of moisture was taken away.
Restore the waters to the desert and a
large tract OF land will again become
habitable, and where now is desert
waste will be the homes OF a dense pop
ulation, from Banning on the north to
San Felipe bay, on the gulf of California,
to the south.
Viewing these facts in this light, it
seems that the railroad people have
adopted mistaken policy in suppress
ing the news about the Salton flood. Al
lowing that the present flood should
continue to increase at the rate it has
for the past fifty days. it would yet be
several months before any serious
railroad track to higher ground. The
distance that the railroad now travels
below sea level is about sixty miles.
If, in time, the Salton basin
should fill up entirely, the railroad
company would be compelled to build
not over 80 or 100 miles of new track on
higher ground. The cost of such re-
moval would be sooE paid for from the
local traffic, where now they have none,
of the new settlements that would be
made by the shores of the new sea. A
true statement of the facts in regard to
the daily rise at Salton, the daily amount
of inflow into that basin, and the
amount of flow in the Colorado river,
together with what it sends to the des-
ert, which the company has, would not
only beget confidence on the part of the
public, but would greatly increase travel
in that direction. Money could be made
now in excursions to Salton.
AS matter of fact the food has al
ready greatly benefited the railroad
company, for it has rendered the cli-
mate Of the desert cooland pleasant for
summer travel, and makes this route
far mole preferable for the tourist than
any other overland line. Coming over
this route on Wednesday the tempera-
ture did not exceed so degrees F., while
the view of the inland sea with it's roll
ing waves and tiny whitecaps stretching
away in the distance as far as the eye
could reach, with regular old-fashioned
surf beating and combing on its new
found shore. and this for fully fifty
miles in plain sight along the road,
uldu0 d uOob tSTCCnUlC plCeuiC, tuliy &C
enhancing as on the famous surf line to
San Diego. Whoever does not come to
California now by the Southern route
misses one of the most interesting sights
of their life. There is great
difference now from what il
was in previous summers when the
thermometers recorded as high as 13C
degrees, and there was nothing to re.
lieve the eye, while hot winds and
binding sand storms added to the dis
comforts OF the route. Now the sea has
come and all is changed. The daily
average rise in the lake of an inch in
sures perfect safety. 1t is very strange
that the railroad people have not seized
these facts, and published them to the
world, and reaped the corresponding
benefit in increased passenger traffic.
Many attempts have been made to
figure out exactly how long it will take
the Colorado river to fill the Salton
basin. The flow of the river in cubic
feet lie known. The approximate out
flow of the river also is now known. The
difficulty comes in the lack of knowl-
edge of the loss by the flood on its way
to the desert from evaporation and in
filtration. Given these last two amounts,
and the exact answer could be easily
given. If the present flood of the Colo