The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-18
CHANGE OF CLIMATE.
Unusual Rains i'm the Southern
California Mountains.
DUE TO THE DESERT LAKE.
Waving Green Pastures Where Desert
Sands Shifted a Few Months Ago
Ancient Canal Discovered.

SAN BERSARDINo, Aug. 17.-Storms are
raging daily in the mountains near this
city. Yesterday it rained several hours
at Cucumauga, but not hard. This
afternoon heavy storms, with thunder and
lightning. were noticed in the mountains
coming down into the valley Above Red
lands at $50 large body of water came
down Mill creek and through Redlands,
washing ont the Redlands motor road in
several places and doing some damage
on the Barton tract. 1t is now
generally believed that these con-
tinued storms and the suitry
weather which has lasted ever since July
l, with Que short interval, has been the re-
suit of the flooding of the Colorado.desert.
If this continues permanently it viii re-
suit in more water in the mountains for
irrlgatlng purposes, but the summer eli
mate will be less pleasant
SAN DIEGO, Cal, Aug. 17-H. w. Pat
ton, who undertook an expedition to de-
termine the source of Salton lake, going
from Yuma down the Colorado river to the
break in the banks, is in the city. He says
he is positive the lake will be permanent
At present it is falling, but each slight rise
in the river adds to the volume of water in
the lake, and now that well-deiined chan
mel has been washed out, the water from
the river would flow directly to the lake,
instead of spreading all over the country
before finding its way to the basin. The
break in the river bank is at an old lagoon
about seventeen miles south of Yuma, IN
Mexican territory. From there TO the
lake, the channel is from 100 feet to half
mile wide, and of sufficient depth to carry
an immense body of water. The soil
through which the channel has cut its way
is a very rich and fertile sandy loan. For
miles and miles the sand of the desert has
been washed into the channel, leaving the
soil exposed.
The water has deposited vast quantities
of queite seed and 100, 900 acres are a wav-
ing sea of green pasturage. At one place
the channel was found to pass between two
rows of huge mesquite trees in perfectly
straight line, over a distance of twenty
miles. Between the rows of trees the
water is nearly twenty feet in depth, while
on either side it had an average of five
feet. Mr.. Patton asserts that the trees
and channel mark the line9f an ancient
irrigating ditch, by whom used no man
can tell. In speaking of the general effects
of the overflow, Mr.. Patton said they
would he both detrimental and beneficial.
In explaining the paradox, he said:
At Banning we had in comparatively short
time four rains. Then there were terrible rains
in the mountains above Redlands, and heavy
fall at Campo, all unprecedented at this time
of year. am satisfied they are the direct re-
suits of Salton lake. These rains come at time
when they are not needed, just in harvest time,
and when the raisin crop is maturing. On the
other hand, it will bring into the market and
under cultivation an immense amount of terri
tory unproductive and sterile. From the break
il the river to Salton lake is 800 miles, and it
consists OF the finest soft imaginable
The water is amply sufficient to
furnish irrigation for hundreds and hundreds of
thousands OF acres. At present about one-fth of
the water in the Colorado river is flowing
through the channel into the lake at Saton,
but with the next heavy raise it would not be
surprising to see almost the entire volume OF
water in the river turned into this channel. At
Yuma, when we left, the thermometer on the
boat registered 112 deg. in the shade, but at no
time during the FIVE days that we were sailing
across the country did it rise above 50 deg.