The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-11-03

ley, Colorado, but those who have made
a special study with reference to the
same, point out different reasons for
this condition.
One theory is that the destruction Of
timber in the mountains of Colorado
and New Mexico has caused the SHOWS
to melt much earlier in the springtime,
and causes much larger floods to rush
down the steep mountain sides than in
the former years, when, under the pro-
tecting influence of forests, the melt
ing of the SHOWS continued gradually
until the season was far advanced.
Those who advocate this theory contend
that there is, during the present year,
just a. much water flowing down the
Rio Grande as ever flowed there, but
hold that it comes now in great tor
rental floods instead of the normal
flows of earlier years; they also point
out that the foods, descending with
great force from the mountains, carry
immense amounts of rock silt, and de-
bris of all kinds into the stream, which
formerly was not Embossed from the
mountain sides, and that the result of
this can be seen, from hundreds of miles
below Ell Paso up to the mountain
sources of the streams, in immense silt
and sand banks ever rising higher and
higher in the bed of the stream, and
that these banks of sand and silt hold
the moisture, which would otherwise
flow down the stream, with Sponge-like
characteristic.
Whether this be the true theory of
the decadence of the Rio Grande as
stream, the examination of irrigation
statistics well as the opinions of the
great experts in the handling of waters
for irrigation, certainly tend beyond all
doubt to establish the fact that the
diversion of waters in the upper parts
of the stream and the location of res
ervoirs for use thereat, do not destroy
the character of the stream as water
course at points below for any great
length of time, but that, after the first
short period of years, the soil being
irrigated commences to turn back the
waters formerly poured upon 1t into the
stream, and in a short time the stream,
a rev miles below, resumes its flow Of
water apparently to the normal extent.
This has been repeated so many times
over in all the western section that it is
now accepted as true by all persons
studying such conditions.
Then again, it is equally well proved
by observation and experience of all
persons in irrigated sections that the
construction of reservoirs goes far to
wards conserving the normal now of
the stream in which the same are con-
structed, and largely offsets the too
rapid melting of the SHOWS due to tim
Der destruction.
The present condition of the Rio
Grande is suggestive of the fact that
the diversions of water therefrom in
Colorado do not sensibly affect the
amount of water flowing below in the
stream, because the irrigating season
has now been over in Colorado for so
days or more, and all waters turned out
of the bitches back into the Rio Grande
and yet, only a short distance below the
state line, the Rio Grande has ceased
to flow. It would therefore appear that
we must find some other theory or rea-
son for the condition of this stream; and
to those looking for SUCH we point out
that as far as the records of this coun-
try go, the Rio Grande was occasionally
in the same condition it is today,a shift
ing, treacherous, quicksand stream,
sometimes filled with f1oodwaters and
even then treacherous and useful to
man, sometimes dry for months at
time for hundreds of miles. One of the
earliest expeditions which came north
from Mexico into this country, reported,
according to records of the Catholic
church. that the stream was dry for so
leagues above and Sc leagues below the
point where FL Paso now stands; and
all along, from that time down to the
present, the same condition has period
ically appeared.
Under these circumstances, it seems
reasonable to believe that the drying up
of the stream is more due to the lack
of precipitation in the mountains along
its head-waters and the plains border
ing the same, than to any other cause