Arizona republican., 1909-06-29
.VAGAR|ES IF RIO COLORADO Its Characteristics a Source
 of Interesting Study FILLING DESERT BASINS Strategic Way It Evades Imperial Canal Head, and Effects Clandestine Meet
 ing With Its Old Friend, the Salton Sea.
FILLING DESERT BASINS

For those of a scientific turn there is no more exhilerating amusement here in the southwest, than sitting IT. the shade and watching the antics of the lower Colorado river, studying out what tricks it has played in the past 800 years and speculating on what its next coup will be. Supervising Engl-
 neer l.. C. Hill, of the reclamation service. has had occasion in recent
 years to give this unruly stream con sideration more serious than mere amusement would suggest and while he admits that there is lot of things he don't know about it, he is probably as near on the inside of its plans and conduct these days as anybody in this day and generation can be. In a re- cent conversation he disclosed num-
 Der of facts that will doubtless be in teresting to many Republican readers
 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 in- uuiries as to the method of measuring the water. He stated that the deepest point in the river at that time at the gauging station of the reclamation ser vice 500 feet below the bridge was 53h feet. Asked how he harmoniZec that statement with a reading of 3Ok feet or thereabout, at the bridge, he laughed and said one should bear in mind that it is the Colorado river un- der discussion and not some little old fashioned conventional stream back east Then he explained a peculiarity of the Colorado, Rio Grande and some other western rivers, that is not fully understood even by a lot of pretty re- spectacle photographic and other en- gineers who are acquainted only with eastern streams. The peculiarity of these western rivers, many of them, is that in flood time as the volume of water increases it goes down as well as mp. At the same time the surface of the water raises ten feet, the chan mel SCOUTS several feet, then as the surface lowers in the receding flood the channel fills again to normal or thereabout When the river volume ex- bands or contracting all over at the same time, instead of doing all the ex- banding on top like a stream in Hume would if excess water were add ed. The measurements at the bridge were correct but they only showed how high the water was; not how deep It was known to be 40 feet deep or more between the piers of the bridge during the present flood, even though the measurement from the nor maj datum on the bridge showed but little over 30 feet.
 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 the Arizona line. It has done all sorts of things there and every once in a while it springs some thing new Just now it seems to be dealing another hand and the engi- neers down in the Imperial country are looking. over their cards to see if they hold anything in the line of trumps. Everybody remembers what it did a few years ago when it ate a hole into the Imperial canal and sneaking down through the ditch played havoc with the lower country, filled up SaltOn basin, then back at the head of the canal put the development company, the Southern Pacific and finally the presidential administration. all on the anxious seat. That play was finally checkmated but most of the pawns were gone and some of the piec9s
 Almost paralleling the canal from near the head for many miles to the west and southwest is New river usu ally a dry stream. Paralleling New river more or 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 aqeduct rather than a river It flows along a ridge that has been built for it in ages gone by, the land to the east and the west being lower than the bed of the river. These little streams | mentioned carry no water except in