The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1897-11-07
I0SAVE WATER, NOT TIMBER.
THAT WOULD BE THE PRINCIPAL
Use OF FOREST RESERVES
Field Assistant Steel Tells OF MS
work East of the Cascade sum
mit-fistfe Valuable Iimber-ihe
Depth of Lake CheIan Learned

The work OF surveying the part O. me
Washington and Cascade forest reserves
east OF the summit Of the CASCADE range
has been completed 50 far as this season
vii aiiow. and the reports OF tAe ollc-a&s
IN charge vii shortly De forwarded %
washington Tor the guidance OF congress
ia legislatiag fer the permanent eslaoslsa-
ment and management OF these reserves.
The work has been in charge Of William e.
Steel field assistant az ire United sizes
geological survey. with whom was M W
German. Of Portland. as botanist MI
Steel was appointed 20 examine me re-
serves with instructions 20 report on the
forests. their nature and extent. the water
sources and supply, general topography.
mines and general botanical Characters
ties They have been n the mountains
over three months. mostly on Lake Cnessn.
where the headquarters camp was. ana
took a packtraln through 10 Vera Cruz, an
old abandoned mining camp on one OF the
hsadwaters Of the Similkameen river.
within ten miles OF The British line There
they were overtaken by snowstorns,
which prevented their seeing enough OF the
eeuntrv 10 continue their work.
REGARDING the results of his examination
Of the timber and his recommendations as
IA the preservation OF the forests, Nh Steel
said:
I'VE have a number OF grades Of timber
in the reserves No. is that which aver
ages 90 feet or less 70 the acre, and al
most the entire eastern side of the range
VIII not average this much. But as pro-
lection 10 the water sources. the value OK
this timber is taestimahle. II would be I'M
practicable TO establish the boundaries or
the reserve 50 as to exclude agricultural
land but I VIII recommend that II man
wants 10 settle on piece Of land which he
claims 10 be agricultural. Ii shall be exam
<ssNFss for a
purpose. and that If he finds il 10 be agri-
cultural the settler may locate on IL.
There will be no difficulty about patrol
ing the reserves l could take three or four
men who are al home in the mountains and
patrol the whole Eastern Washington half
of the reserve. / would put men on the
high mountains. where they could locate
fire fifty miles off and could go right TO the
spot, 1t would not be difficult 10 trace the
man who started a FIRE for the law pro-
vides that every man who enters reserve
must give detailed account of his move
ments. Then men always follow the
streams up. and thus they could easily be
traced | would not 20 after men with a
knife in my hand. but would use moral
suason at first and get public opinion on
the side of the law. Then they would help
in its enforcement and you would only have
TO deal with the few careless or vicious
ones. When three or four of these had
been put in the penitentiary, there would
not be much more trouble.
I'VE sounded Lake Chelan from end to
end. but our work was only preliminary,
because we had no plane tables or engi-
neers. so that our soundings were only APP
proximately located We made sixty sound
ings or about one per mile OF the length Of
the lake. which l believe is only about
sixty instead of seventy miles long, as has
been supposed. Early In the season the
government sentus a sounding outfit which
was very crude for the purpose-a steel
tape used in measuring oil wells-and in at
tempting TO sound with it we were entirely
unable 10 discover when We touched bot
tom. We let out $3.50 feet Of that steel
tape off Coyote creek, thirty or forty miles
up the lake, where the steep cliffs rise on
each side. I then ordered in Portland an
entirely new outfit for using steel piano
wire. drawing the plans myself. II Is an
improvement on the outfit used in sound
ing Crater lake in Southern Oregon. and
that worked with absolute precision and
touched bottom everywhere. stopping the
instant II touched. With that outfit we
sounded and found the deepest water TO be
Las feet. just above Safety harhor. There