Arizona republican., 1900-11-26
IA Paper of Great Interest to
 the Arid West
Carefully Prepared by MT. L. M. Holt of Los Angeles and Read Before the Irrigation Congress-Recla- nation of the Colorado Desert.

l
 The Republican has been furnished
 with a copy of a paper prepared by MT. L. M Holt of Los Angeles and read be-
 fore the irrigation congress in Chicago
 Friday afternoon, November 23.
 The paper is too long to be printed in
 full at this time but a synopsis of it's
 leading features is given below:
 Webster describes a desert as "A de-
 serted or forsal1en tract of land; an ur-
 inhabited and unproductive-region a wilderness; a solitude; a region desti- tute of moisture or vegetation" | While this definition is technically correct. still the popular idea is that q desert is a barren stretch of country consisting of sand, gravel and bould- CTS, a waste that can never be made of any value whatever to the human race from an agricultural point of view. Deserts of more or less extensive
 arr as are to be found on every conti-
 nent, and on many of the islands.
 During the past century deser; re-
 gions have attracted the attention of scientists, capitalists, statesmen and the common people in'search of homes. It is a recognized fact today that thare are two kinds of deserts-i,ha ir- reclaimable and the reclaimable des- erts.
 The irreclaimable desert is the one that fills the popular idea of worthless ariGity. It is composed of drifting
 sands, gravel. boulders. and other
 worthless material, and no work of man can ever change that condition of affairs.
 The r5claimable desert is a tract Of land composed of rich soil that is un- productive simply from lack of mOis- ture.
 Most of the noted deserts of the world
 are located partially bclOw the level of the sea. This is the case with the great Sahara desert in North Africa. From time to time ii has been sug- gested that a canal be cut through the rim of land that lies between the in
 terior basin and the Mediterranean sea. with a view of letting in the wa,.rs of the ocean. and thus forming an in land sea that might De of use in open ing up the unknown interior of the Dark Continent, and at the same time possibly modify the climate of the countries lying adjacent thereto.
 THE COLORADO DESERT.
 The most notable desert on the Pa cifc coast is to be found in the eastern portion of San Diego and Riverside counties. in southsTn California, in the delta of the Colorado river. |. is mo- table because today it is so worthless, and because it can be made so valuable at so little expense per acre. This country has been known for years as the Colorado desert.
 The Colorado. river takes its rise in Colorado and Wyoming, and on Ns way to the ocean it has dug out tha great natural wonder, which of i.s kind has no equal in the world-the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. This canyon is three hundred miles in length, from ten to fifteen miles in width, and over one mile in depth. The mats rial taken out of this canyon was ground to powder and carried by the waters of the river to the mouth Ol the stream and there deposited This river has for ages past emptied its w& ters into the gulf of California. Orig inally this gulf extended 175 miles fur ther inland than it does today, to a point a. few miles northwest of Indio station on the Southern Pacific rail- road. Indio is located about twenty feet below sea level.
 Originally the Colorado river emp tied into ihe gulf of Califo2lia at a point about 125 miles below the head of the gulf. At that point, at that time, | the gulf was from fifty to sixty miles | wide. The alluvial deposits made by the river, in the course Of ages, formed l a bank across the gulf thus forming | an inland sea about 100 miles long and ! -;,lz +.,o upper end of the gulf. In the course of still further ages tlis inland sea dried | up, leaving a basin the size of tha in land sea. portions of which are now 2S5 feet below sea level.
 The barrier formed by the Colorado river between the inland basin and the gulf of California is at present from sixty to seventy miles in width, from tide water at the head of the gulf to the nearest point of sea level in the basin, and the highest central portion of the ridge is probably fifty feet above sea level. The old ocean beach is dis tinctly visible for most of the distance around this inland basin, and looks as natural as though the waves were still washing the sands.
 The waters of the Colorado river carry about one quarter of one per cent of solid matter, and if it were possible to ascertain the depth and extent of the deposits used tu form the Colorado delta, the scientist could approximate ly compute from the well known flow of the river, how many millions of years have been required for the river to eXcavate the Grand Canyon and build the grand delta.
 The quality Of the alluvial deposits carried by the waters of the Colorado river has been very carefully ascer- tained by the United States experiment tai station, which is being conductei at Tucson, Arizona, in connection with the territorial university. A series of investigations extending over a period of more than a year has developed the fact that the average acre foot of wa ter carried by that stream carries com