Los Angeles herald., 1891-07-31
THE Los ANGELES HERALD: MORNING, JULY 81 1891

water which may be required. Nature
again has formed aqueducts from this
point to the bed OF Old river, but it will
be necessary to cut one channel. and
thus confine and husband the water.
This canal should be, say forty-five feet
in width and ten in depth, and forty
miles in length through Mexican terri
tory. We then can avail ourselves of
the channel of Old river for thirty or
forty miles through the American delta,
simply by deepening and strengthening
it, and finally extend it by smaller cuts
some fifteen or twenty miles further up
to the eastern depression of the basin
aud to the base of the mountains.
After reaching the American soil the
lateral canals may be cut at such inter-
walls as the requirements for irrigation
may demand, and, of course, the ex-
pense will be in due ratio to the num-
Der required, and that can only be de-
termined by actual experiment.
The area of land which may be irri-
gated may be set down at twenty miles
in width and forty in length. This es-
innate must be taken with all due al
lowance and in connection with the OBJ
stacles in making the estimate. There
aAO3 III viz hiob RidCC3 a POi vi thC
lands within the boundary which may
be irrigated, all irreclalmable, owing to
the formation and composition, such as
sand drifts, elevations, mud volcanoes,
alkalies and salt beds, and finally it
would be difficult, if not impossible, to
make an estimate of the volume of
water which may be spared or safely
taken from the Colorado river, or the
area of lands which given volume of
water will rrigate. All of this cannot
be correctly fixed priori, and can only
be determined by actual experiment.
can only say that there is the above
named amount of lands within the
American boundary which will admit
of irrigation from the Colorado river,
and that those lands are unusually rich,
being composed of clay, sand, mari and
shells, and withal presenting remark
ably favorable surface for irrigation.
The plan before congress did not, of
course, include the idea of flooding this
desert, but the lands were to be granted
to private company upon the condi-
tion that fresh water from the Colorado
river should be conducted to and
through them by canals and irrigating
bitches. If the desert now becomes en-
tirely flooded it will demonstrate the
feasibility of the project.
When the matter was last exhaust
lively considered before congress the
house committee on public lands thus
reported on it:
This bill proposes, in consideration of
the introduction of wholesome supply
of fresh water into the Colorado desert,
to cede to Oliver M. Wozencraft and his
associates the said desert tract as de-
scribed in the bill.
Thistrac embraces about (Lieuten-
and Bergland makes it) 1900 square
miles in the basin of what is now
and must until an energetic and ex-
pensive system of reclamation is inaug-
urated and brought to successful COM
pletion, remain valueless and horrible
desert.
The labor of reclamation must be
commenced within two years and COM
pleted within ten years. As fast as
water shall be introduced, upon a report
to that effect being made to the govern
ment by duly appointed commission,
patents shall issue for the parts re-
claimed and when all of the conditions
are fulfilled, then, and not till then,
shall the title vest in said grantee.
The bill contains provision protect
ing any persons in their existing rights
under the laws of the United States,
whether acquired under the pre-emption
laws or by grants of any character,
under the laws of the United States.
That part of the Colorado desert lying
within the United States is triangular
tract of land between the Colorado river
on the east and the Coast range of
mountains on the west, lying wholly.
within San Diego county, in the state of
California. The base of the triangle
extends along the southern boundary
of California, from Fort Yuma west
werd, between eighty and one hundred
miles, the apex of the triangle being
about one hundred and eighty miles
to the northwest, and the sides, as
they approach the apex, inclining
toward the west. From the report
of the several accommodating parties
sent out by the government, from u.
s. surveyors who have extended govern
ment surveys over it., and from the re-
ports of army officers who have frequent
ly traversed it, come the concurrent and
universal testimony of its utter aridity
and barrenness. Even sage brush,
grease wood and mesquite, those
wretched products OF the desert, with
which as with rags and tatters nature
vainly tries to cover her unlovely pow
erty, are unable to withstand the pre-
vailing heat whitening winds. The
Indians who live on the border of this
region, with lively appreciation OF its
horrors, call it death Desert" and
they have belief that the wicked are
doomed to wander there without water
in summer and without clothes in
winter.
1t is believed that the superfuous
waters of the Colorado river turned
into this desolate plain would suffice to
change its resemblance to the rhada-
manthus abode of Indian fends to fer
Gile fields, the home of plenty and con-
tentment.
These are more definite points than
have been presented about the myster-
iously flooded district, and will increase
the general interest in the result of the
present inroad of waters.
Dc Ivo