Weekly journal-miner., 1911-11-29
COLORADO RIVER CARRIES MUCH
 MINERAL

The Colorado river discharges dur
 ing an average year into the Gulf of
 California 33S,OOO,OOO tons of mud
 and silt as suspended matter In ad-
 dition to this the dissolved substances
 in the water include 4,55O,OOO tons of
 sodium chloride, or common salt; ! 3,740,0O0 tons of Glauber's saults;
 100000 tons of lime; 2,4OO,OOO tons
 of gypsum; and 4,SO0,OO0 tons of
 Epson salts. In spite of all this dis
 solved material the Colorado at its
 mouth is not considered to be a
 stream of unusually high mineraliza-
 tion for that region of the country. The reason is that the river also
 carries so enormous an amount of
 water that the dissolved salts con
 stitute a comparatively small propOr-
 tiOn of the total discharge. Other streams in the country contain dis
 solved salts in greater concentration flor example, the Elm Fork or Red river, in Oklahoma, discharges nearly
 100000 tons of common salt an
 nually. Although this amount is not so great as that discharged by the
 Colorado it is much greater in pro- portion to the size of the area drain ed. The discharge of salt from the Colorado is equal to % tons an nually to each square mile drained by the river, but the salt in Elm Fork of Red river is equal to 1880 tons per square mile of area drained. The same river discharges annually 177,OOO tons of magnesium chloride, 16S,OOO tons of Epson salts, 69O,OO0 tons of gypsum, and 54,OOO tons of lime. These quaitities, too, are con siderably greater than those carried in the Colorado in proportion to the size of the drainage area.
 Belle Fourehe river. at Belle Fourehe, South Dakota, discharges 191,OOO tons of gypsum. 79,OOO tons of Glauber's salts, and 236,OOO tons of Epson salts. The mud and silt carried in suspension by this river amount to 1,10O,OOO tons. Milk river at Havre, Mont. discharges annually fl ,000 tons of soda; Payette river, in Idaho, discharges 46,OOO tons; Salt river at roosevelt. Ariz.. discharges 2SS,000 tons of salt and 10000 tons of Epson salts; and the Rio Grande discharges 245,OOO tons of lime and 36S,OOO tons of Glauber's salts.
 Determines Practical Value of Waters
 The foregoing are a few of the fig ures of incidental interest presented by Water-Supply Paper 274 of the United States Geological Survey, en- titled ''Some stream waters of the western United States The work reported by this volume is. however, of higher practical importance than the above statement would indicate It is the result of an investigation of the quality of western stream waters made for the purpose of determining their availability for use for irriga- ton and other purposes. For a wat er-supply system the quality of the water available determines its use fitness quite as much as the quan- tity. Some waters contain ingredi- ents that make it impossible to use them for irrigation unless certain precautions are taken in applying them to the land and in draining them off. Certain ingredients in water make it unavailable or de- structive if used in boilers and the quality of water used in a manufae- turing plant may very largely deter mine the quality of the product of manufacture. The report just pub lished therefore can not fail to be of material value to the manufacturing and agricultural interests of the west and the proper consideration of the that it contains will pre- vent many costly mistakes in con neetion with the industrial develop ment of that part of the country.
 A copy of this report may be ob- tained free on application to the Di- rector of the United States Geologic al Survey, Washington, D. C.