The Indianapolis journal., 1891-07-05
sToKy OF FIGURES.


STORY OF FIGURES.
The Colorado River. to Furnish the Water for
Tn. Lake, Must Equal Fifty Ohios.
LOUISVILLE, KY. July "A reporter
called on Col Blsnton Duncan, of this
city. who is familiar with the old dry lake
basin in California. now being inundated.
and obtained the following interesting de-
scription of the locality. together with his
views on the probable cause of the remark
able phenomenon.
Colonial Duncan first drew q sketch of
the country, showing the inundated sec
tion and surrounding country. With this
before him he said: The snrmises of vari
GUS persons as to the cause OF this lake
are guided By nothing sufficient to give
q correct idea. The Southern Pacific
road. after it crosses the Colorado
AT Yuma. runs 70 the northwest In San Ber-
nardino county. California. by valley be-
tween two high ranges of mountains. The
grade was easy, going through sand and be-
low thelevel of the sea nearly all the way to
Indio. where it IL nearly three hundred feet
below Commencing short distance
above Yuma the land rises. and a range of
mountains runs close on the west side of
the Colorado for distance OF nearly one
desert there i. A continuation of the Sierra
Madre mountains, which become the san
Bsrnsrdlno mountains and the San Jacinto.
From the ocean 20 lndio and Salton 1t Is
miles of intervening mountains of
5000 feet and upward. In the
San Bernsrdino and san Jacinto
mountains there are numerous large mount
aims of ten thousand to thirteen thousand
feet altitude. covered with snow the year
round. All of these mountains lnterven-
ing from the ocean are volcanic, with enor-
NOUS masses of solid hard stone, so that it
would seem utterly Impossible TO sustain
auy theory that the ocean has In any man.
ner excavated through those seventy miles
of solid stone passage for it's waters. The
saltiness of the waters, exceeding the
density of the Paciho, could easily be
counted for by running through the vast
beds of salt and alkali which extend over
many thousands of square miles In those
mountains and valleys
NO fixed data has been gwen as 70 the
point from which these waters pour out
such q volume but that IL must De very
great chasm is apparent from the state
ments already made.
DIMENSIONS OF THE LAKE.
"If in two days lake is formed taking
conservative basis and not the extrsvs-
CANT one. which says it is forty miles long.
OF eighty miles long by forty miles broad
and estimating that it really has filled up
that valley twenty miles by thirty, and
still flowing on with o current of four and
one-half miles per hour. the calculation
can easily be made as to tho enormous vol
ume. 1t must have hlled up some OF the
deeper depressions to = vastly greater depth
than the statement Of eight and one-half.
In the low spots of three hundred feet the
water would continue to run until there
was q level with higher spots or
there would be no extension of
the area. 1t must be surInised
that the mean depth IN that whole valley
cannot be less than thirty feet. and 1t 10
rising over the whole six hundred or one
thousand square miles at the rate of seven
inches per day. Make the calculation of
the quantity of water, not estimating the
enormous quantity drank mp by the sands
and il would be, for 1900 square miles.
s36, 81. .OOO 600 cubic contents In feet after
only forty eight hours' outflow. besides the
waste and evaporation. Now, TO show the
untenable position of Professor Powell and
others, who treat this as simply the surplus
water from the Colorado, which is not n
not begin TO carry the volume OF
water in the Ohio. L will il
lustrate the subject by supposing
the Ohio to have poured its waters some
where above US into lake. and. taking its
depth at three feet. it's velocity at sixteen
thousand feet per hour and its width here
at four Thousand feet, how much would all
its waters give per houri Five hundred
and twelve million cubic feet And how
much in forty eight hours? Twenty-fOur
billion. five hundred and seventy-six mill
lon cubic feet. II not drop was wasted
And how does that compare with the lake.
without computing the vast surplus which
has been wasted in the sand and evapo-
would take Just thirty-fo rivers
like the Ohio at its present
stage to deliver the amount of
water now standing IN the lake. and
not drop would bel running below the
falls So Professor Powell and the others
will have to come again. The rise of seven
inches per day over one Thousand square
miles means source of surplus water-for
of 1872. $4,000 cubic feet per day. The
flow OF the Ohio entirely is only II 2Ss ,0O0-
Coo cubic feet. only three-fourths of the sur
plus. which 10 gaining and spreading. And
as IL reaches fresh, deep dePressions the
rise 10 enormous when these have to be
filled up. probably one hundred feet deep
or more. The inquiry as to the source
must therefore go further on than that of
the ocean OF the river.
NOT FROM THE COLORADO.
The river could not break through that
chain of mountains. and as it does not seem
TO come IN above Yuma It must go around
the mountains. one hundred miles north of
Yuma, if that is the source-and the river
would be dry at Yuma if such stream had
been diverted-the Colorado would be equal
10 at least fifty ohios
"Durlng the visit of the senatorial COM
mittee to CalifOruia Senators Stewart ana
Reaganl. was invited by the varions COM
mlttees OF Los Angeles. as I had been
intimate with both Senator's 60 ac-
company them through southern Cal
lfornia. while Investigating irrigation
and sources OF water. | prOpOund-
ed 20 them my observations of the develop
meDt of water supply and suggested q view
which none of them had previously eonsid-
cred. Artesian wells are To he found In al
most every locality. over vast tracts of
land. and subterranean streams seem to
flow from the mountains toward the sea,
along certain grade. SO that IN
digging down forty feet near the
sea 9oas. water gusned up, and
It VIII De found that at q mile one would
have to go down one hundred feet on a lit
Tie higher level: at two miles two hundred
1eet: perhaps. as the ground
cended, and so on. the depth of the
we'll 10 the spring being more as one
went back TO the mountains And then in
many places Ii has been discovered that
tunnels right under the mountain would
strike vast streams of water / therefore
suggested. and am fully convinced that
beneath the mountains there are vast reser-
vOirs OF fathOmess water which will vet
be the means of irrigatipu the supposed
sterlIe heins- ne Sierra Madre mountains.
the san bernardinO and San Jaciuto COM
k.e IN aEsa4