Arizona weekly citizen., 1891-08-29
" HE.KLY CITIZEN
THE SAlTON LAKE.

THE sALTON LAKE.
 The fact that the Santa Ana river, winch is usually dry arroya at this sason, says the San Francesca Call, is C running stream of water, and that am is falling almost daily in the San l;srnsrdino county, is a partial answer to the scientists who declare that the evaporation from the Salton lake can not affect the climate of routhern Cal ltornis, It has been estimated by Major Powell that that evaporation will amount to not less than two inches a week,
 It is urged by those who do not be- 3ieve in the future benefits of the San Diego lake that there is considerable evaporation from the Great Salt Lake, and yet that portions of tho land ad- lacent are arid desert. That is true, but large portions of the land adjacent are extremely fertile. The example of the Great Salt Lake only goes to prove that the existsnce of @ body of water can DO, be relied upon to fertilize ali the terri tory surrounding it.
 But the evidence of the past which is written in the rocks and the fossils show that there was time when southern California was not rainless rs zion, but so abundsntly supplied with water thai it sustained 8 considerable population. Remains of forests and of human in hsbitations found in the sand and blue elsy of the Colorado desert confirm the 1ndisn legends. tbat the slopes of the mountains surrounding the desert, ano parts of the desert itself, were once pretty thickly inhabited. On the south srn slope of the Goronlo mountains, anC on the eastern slope of the San Der nsrdino range are seen forests of dead trees, blighted by the fiery breath of the desert. At the time those trees grew the climate must have been mIldcI than it is, and there must have beer more moisture in the atmosphere. Al. through that region, on both sides O. the San Bernsrdino range, the soil ik |. furrowsd by the dry beds of ext-nc streams. There must have been time when those streams were full ol water; and when they were agriculture could have flourlshed and mankind might have abounded.
 1t is impossible to conceive that any other agency can have converted suct sn srable and inhabitable tract e. this into 6 desert, except the drying up of the lake which supplied its atmospher. with humidity. And it follows that il the drying up of the lake caused tie desert it's restoration would reverse the process, reconvert the sand and mud waste into agricultural land.
 When the Call last referred to this subject, a few weeks ago.the water ID the lake was at standstill, and there was a prospect that evaporation would more than offset the supply of water from the river. The Colorado continues to dis charge large volume of water througf tue man break at Algodones, some nineteen miles from Yuma, and thit water is flowing rapidly through chan nel which it has cut through the deserl to Indian wells and Sslton. The su- ply is ID excess of the amount substract ed by evaporation. At Yuma the river hangs at the l9-foot level, and shows nc sign of receding. Exact measurements show that the depression of the deserI sinks is greater than has bssn supposed It is nov reported that the bottom oi Salton Lak4 is 3S3 feet below the water level at Algodanes. which would impl, that the bed of the Colorado has beer raised by the deposits of silt since th, surveys were made twenty years ago.
 People generally take DO further in terest in this matter than they woulc vouohsafe to any extraordinary phenom- enon. But if the lake becomes per nsnent, and the Instructions which in tervene between the gulf and the Indisr Wells are eroded by the force of tht water revolution may ensue m South srn California of which it is difficult t, measure the probable effects. A trecl of country as large as Connecticut ano capabls of sustaining larger population than that state, will be reclaimed ano devoted to the highest and most luc- rstive form of agriculture and horticult ure.