The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-27
ANTICS OF Rio COLORADO.
Characteristics Of This UnruIy River
An Interesting Study.
Phoenix RepublicanD

For those Of q scientific turn there is
no more eXhilarating amusement here
in the southwest than sitting in the
shade and watching the antics of the
lower Colorado river, studying out what
tricks it has played in the past FIVE
hundred years and specializing on what
its next coup Will be. L. c. Hill, super
visinE engineer of the reclamation ser
vice, has had occasion in recent years
to give this Unruly stream consideration
more serious than mere amusement.
For instance, one statement made on
the receipt of advices from Yuma dur
ing the highest water Of last week, that
the river was securing between the piers
of the Southern Pacific bridge but not
close to them. brought out inquiries as
to the method Of measuring the water.
He stated that the deepest point in the
river at that time at the gauging sta
ton Of the reclamation service five hun
dred feet below the bridge was fifty
three and onc-half feet Asked how
ne harmOnized that statement with a
reading of thirty and One-half feet or
thereabout. at the bridge. he laughed
and said one should bear in mind that
il is the Colorado river under discus
sion and not some little old fashioned
conventional stream back east. Then
he explained a popularity Of the Col
oradO, Rio Grande and some other
western rivers, that is not fully under
stood even by a lot Of pretty respecta-
BILE photographic and other engineers
who are acquainted only with eastern
streams The popularity Of these west
eTn rivers, many of them. is that in
food time as the volume Of water in
creases it goes down as well as UP. At
the time the surface Of the water raises
ten feet, the channel scOurs several feet,
then as the surface lowers in the reCed
ing food the channel fills again to nor
NAL or thereabOut. When the river vol
Ume expands or contracts it is all over
al the same time instead Of doing all
the expanding on top like a stream in q
flume would if excess water were added
The measurements at the bridge were
correct but they only showed how high
the water was. not how deep. II was
known to be forty feet deep or more be-
tween the piers Of the bridge during the
present food, even though the measure
ment from the normal datum on the
bridge showed but little over thirty
feet
South of the Arizona Line.
But the most interesting study is To
watch the antics of the Colorado in its
natural playground west Of the normal
bed and south Of tine Arizona line II
has done all sorts of things there and
every once i'm a while IL springs some
thing new. Just now it seems to be
dealing another hand and the engineers
down in the Imperial cOuntr- are look
ing over thei- cards 10 see IL they hold
anything in the line OF trumDs. Every
body remembers what il did q few
years ago when IL ate a hole into the
Imperial canal and sneaking down
through the ditch played havoc with the
lower country. flied up Salton basin.
then back AT the head Of the canal nut
the development company. the Southern
Pacific and finally the presidential adj
ministration. all on the anxious seat.
That play was finally Checkmated. but
most Of the pawns were gone and some
Of the pieces.
Almost psralleling the canal from
near the head for many miles TO the
west and southwest is New river US
uauy dry stream. ParalleliuE New.
river more OF less regularly are a score
or more Of little streams. many Of them
nameless. That is. they are streams
when there is any water in them. The
Colorado from Yuma down is an auua-
duct rather than g river. Il flows along
. ridge that has been buiIt for it in