Imperial Valley press., 1908-09-12

tisties to be Obtained by Month and
 Year by Tri-Monthly Measurements.
 The surface of the Salton Sea, Cali. formia. is 200 it. below sealevel. The greatest depth of the water in this sea is nearly so feet. Its area is about 40 Sd. miles It may be accepted as a fact that there is no loss of water from the sea in appreciable amount by intiItration into the crust of the earth Neither does the sea receive any ap- preciabie accession to it's waters from submerged springs. It lies in a basin which had dry bed until flooded with water from the Colorado River. The accession to its waters comes in the form of rain; local run of from adjacent areas due to occa- sional storms of small extent and the discharge of Alamo and New rivers.
 The rain is ordinarily only 2 to 3 inS. per year. The local run off be- fore there was a sea was inadequate to cover the bottom of the basin with water. It may, in it's effect upon the water surface, so far as this prelimin- ary discussion is concerned, be ne glected The discharge of the Alamo and New rivers for a year past can be approXimated with a fair degree of accuracy. The elevation of the sur face of the sea has been recorded from day to day. It is therefore possible to reach some conclusion relating to evaporation from this large body of water. located in region where the summer is long and warm and the rel ,ative humidity of the air is low.
 The facts relating to the flow of Alamo and New rivers, which were used in estimating the effect of these rivers upon the stage of the sea, have been furnished by Mir F. c. Hermann Chief Engineer of the California De- velopment Company. Under his difec- tion gagingS were made of New River at Calexico, covering the period June, July, August and September, 1907. Subsequent to that time the Cow in New River nas been sTs Atexico. To the flow of New Rive. < Calexico, however. there is to be added the seepage from the irrigated lands, amounting. says MT. Hermann, to about 40 sec.-ft., as an average.
 The flow in the Alamo is made up of the water wasted from the canal system at Sharps of which Mir Herr mann has kept careful record, of the flow in the Holton power canal, of waStage from the canals of the mu- tual water companies and of seepage. Concerning the wastage of water by the canal companies MT. Hermann states that this cannot be determined accurately but that he believes that it will rarely exceed 9 sec.-ft. Of the Seepage, he says that three times as much irrigated land is tributary to the Alamo as to the New River and that therefore seepage to the amount of 100 to 150 it. may De expected in the Alamo. This is probably an over estimate, if intended to apply to the entire year. It appears from gagings of the Alamo, made at Brawley, March g to 91, 1908, and of gagings of the Hoiton power canal, and of the vast age at SharpS during the same time, that the excess flow at Brawley over the combined flow into the Alamo at Sharps and through the power canal averaged about 100 sec.-ft. The as sumption may therefore be made that 100 sec. fit or 200 acre-ft. per day is the amount to be allowed for wastage from the mutual canals together with the seepage which reaches the sea through the enamel of Alamo River.
 The gage on which water-Surface elevation is observed is attached to pile of the railroad trestle across Salt Creek, not far from Durmid. on the northeast shore of the sea-
 The rainfall was estimated from the data from the published records of the U. s. Weather Bureau. After giv- ing comparative tables, Prof. Grun- sky, continues:
 It is at once seen that the observed evaporation from Salton Sea in July and August is undoubtedly less and that the observed evaporation in No yember and December is greater than what actually took place. The dis crepancy between the evaporation rates for single months. as deter