Churchill standard. (Fallon, Nev) 1903-1908, 1905-10-14
EDITORIAL COMMENT
CHURCHILL A FAVC RED SECTION.
". c. Black, Editor

-HE Carson Sink is perhaps the most fertile section of the
Great Basin, strangely favored by location and climatic
conditions. When it is considered that the Great Basin as dc
fined bv present day Biologists embraces nearly the whole o
this state, half of Utah and parts of Oregon Idaho and Wyoming
aterritorv of 100000 square miles, the broadness of the assertion
is realized. In all this region there is not a stream that reaehe,
the ocean. The annual precipitation Is very small and tbs
evaporation active. All the water reaching the land is returned
to the air by this latter process either directly or from the
streams and lakes. The fresh water lakes are few and small, and
in turn discharge into lakes more or less alkaline and saline
which have no outlet. In this state Walker, Pyramid and catson
Lakes are the most notable examples, once the deepest portion OF
a vast inland sea, but no~ mere pools, carrying a very high
percentage o. alkaline and saline matter, pr cipitat9d into them
bv the Washing process active for centuries past.
According 10 Israel { Russell, professor of geology in th'
Umve,st, o, Michigan, much OF tins Great Basin was once
below the sea level. as a small portion OF it lying towards the
Gulf OF California sdl is today. BY upheaval tie primordial
conditions were changed, the great mountain ranges on the west
side OF us, cut the basin off from the ocean winds producing
aridity, winch gives he county its present character Taken a.
awhoe ii sui drying up, though the government is planning
to stop the process of ardity IN favored localities, through the
agency of imam, who will form settlements, plant and nourish trees
and use the lIow, thus conserving and utilizing the moisture iurn-
ished by the government, from sections NOE favored and possess
ing no agricultural lands upon which it could be used. Thus, Lake
Tahoe. which drains a very considerable portion OF the western
slone of the Sierra Nevada snow shed, will ultimately be made to
furnish the 100000 acres to be embraced by the Carson Sink
project, without any perceptbe loss to mankind, as a result OF
depriving the lake of its surplus waters.
Nearly the whole of this vast area of 100000 square miles Is
suitable for different forms of agriculture, once it is reclaimed b,
water. Professor Russell says that liquid rock covered the
broad plains and extended into the valleys in the adjacent
mountains, giving them floors of basalt. Mountain spurs be-
came capes and headlands, outstanding buttes were transformed
into islands in the molten sta 1t lava, since cooled aud
crvstalzed, has in places been folded and tilted, and the surface,
especially where it is still nearly horizontal, has dec+yed and
yielded a wonderfully rich SOIL
tits the fine residual soil of the arid plains, of this state.
redistrbuted in part BY the winds, which has lain dormant
through these many ages and is only now coming to be recog
nized in anits possibilities, through the intelligent work of tkt
government reclamation department.
Yet the process is but begun. 1t will go on through the ages,
but faster for it will he accelerated more and more by the i'll
tellgence of man, as he comes to know the scientific processes
necessary in its achievement.
To future history new instances ard pI oos will be shown III
this project now about to be completed OF the possibilities OF tn,
modification OF physical conditions by means OF human agency.
After all we live only in our little day, yet we may forecast what
will be after we have become a part of the soil we mention. Pos
sibly herein lies the strongest argument, and the most convincing
example, OF mans immortality.
TIT DnrCC VIC nTCT