Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1908-07-16
The Ruby Msuatalns
RENO, Nevada. July IS, 1908.

my TeCeHI I6luIh lIOul Gu0 OOuCu 4 DIX,
I send to you brief statement. of my
impression of the Ruby Mountains.
Elko county is to be congratulated OH
possessing so valuable an asset as these
mountains and so good guardian of
them as Uncle Sam. Nowhere else in
the state, believe, does so small an
area of rocks support so large an area of
agricultural land, and nowhere else in
the state do mountains act in such an
astounding way. The present season,
when the Truckee river is low and
storage dams are being opened to supply
the seriously depleted stream, the South
Fork of the Humboldt is booming as
tho no dry winter had visited the state,
and tho the Truckee reached the high
est stage more than two months ago at
the time of the spring .freshet, the
South Fork is now just passing it's flood
when it's waters are most valuable for
starting the second crop of hay.
The reasons for this phenomena may
be stated in these words: altitude, crags
and brush. The range towers in crags
thousands of feet into the air where
freezing temperatures occur regularly
the larger part of the year. The crags
form gigantic wind barriers in the
lee of which the snow is piled-each
snow bank proportional to the heighth
and breath of the barrier behind which
it is formed. There under the influence
of cold and it's own compression it is
solidifed until it's bulk approximates
the bulk of the water into which it will
Liter be released. 1t matters not
whether the snow falls early or late in
the season. In either case, it is securely
caught and solidified behind the cliffs
and the snow SO gathered exceeds in
power the snow stored on the lower
slopes of the range.
\ And when, in the summer, the water
has begun to run from these snow
deposits down the mountain face, it
does not run as if it were in a sluice
box, rising in high flood as the sun
melts the snow and drying to small pro-
portions when the snow becomes hard
again at nightfall and the parent
rivulets cease to flow. The natural
meadows formed in the pockets of the
cliffs and in the canyons, the great
field of bull brush and the aspens and
other vegetation that cover the stream
bed act as a gigantic governor holding
the water in their spongelike blanket,
retarding the current with their
obstructing trunks and roots, and
shielding it with their canopy of leaves
from evaporation by wind and sun.
And so effectually does this vegetation
work that the water which starts from
the snow fields at two o'clock in the
afternoon does not reach Cranes Qess
than twenty miles distant) until four
ton hours later, altho the water when
Ii reaches that ranch has so increased
in speed that there it is flowing at the
rate of four and one-half miles per hour.
But more remarkable still is the fact
t!iat the daily fluctuation of the stream
IRE is not more than one and one half
!ches while the stream is maintaining
And all this is accomplished without
20 aid of pine or cedar which occur
only infrequently on the Ruby Range.
The latter timber, the fuel timber of
Elko county, covers the adjacent hills so
thickly as to suggest the young orange
orchards of Southern California.
Practically all of this cedar is in private
ownership and SO abundant is the SUP
ply that it seems sufficient for treble
the present population of the county.
The Ruby Reserve is, therefore. a
reservation of rocks and brush. not of
ii nbcr and the evident purpose of the
government is to protect the water
Su >ply by preserving the covering of
We setation against burning and other
destruction. The bull brush is i'm
penetrable to sheep and it's presence and
increasing growth are barrier to their
easy ranging. It's spread may also
| rp1ucn some what tbc n,,;l,1 Ill, ,,,,aI.-...