peculiarly adapted to the construction and maintenance of an immense system of irrigation based on the storage of water by artificial reservoirs, and the supply of which it will be the endeavor of the writer to show is abundantly provided for by rain-fall. Were it possible to obtain a bird's-eye view of the Territory, the observer would see spread out before him an area equaling Italy in size, consisting of a series of mountainous plateaus, ranging in height from 7,000 feet in the northern part of the Territory to a few hundred feet in the southwestern portion. Of these plateaus those of the north will be found interspersed with mountain chains and deep cañons. In some places volcanic cones rise over 5,000 feet above the plateaus, while cañon gorges are cut as deep below. To these characteristics the plateaus of the south western portion of Arizona present strong contrasts, consisting as they do of level valleys, mesa or table lands, gradually sloping off towards the Gulf of California. Some of these are basins of what have been, at comparatively recent periods, immense inland seas. In places the loss of altitude is so rapid that immense cañons have been cut by erosion through the mountain chains and plateaus, and immense basins have been formed along the water-sheds of all the permanent streams.

These cañons and basins are of great depth and area, and present unrivaled facilities for the construction of a system of artificial reservoirs similar to that established by the British Government in India, where the Himilayas present much the same characteristic features. The streams, which in the north flow through cañons whose precipitous sides tower thousands of feet above the surface of the water, as they reach the southern mesas roll sluggishly along, with barely sufficient fall to prevent their sinking in the sand.

It is in the valley along the latter portions of the rivers of Arizona that are to be found rich alluvial lands uneqaled in fertility and productiveness.

The areas of these lands in Arizonia are variously estimated from 6,000,000 to 10,000,000 acres, or an area surpassing all of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, or Belgium, and nearly equaling Switzerland. The vastness of these areas can scarcely be realized from the mere mention of the figures, but their extent can be appreciated when it is remembered that the entire area of such land susceptible of reclamation on the Rhone in southern France is less than 400,000 acres; Spain does not equal this, while the famous deltaic provinces of lower Egypt possess but about three times this area, and India, the oldest settled of all lands, has but about five times as much as France under cultivation through irrigation.

Lieutenant Glassford says that the exhaustion of water in the lower levels has already commenced in many places. Storage, therefore, becomes a necessity, he adds, in order

First, to widen the area of land possible to be reclaimed; and, second, to secure sufficient water during seasons of drought. Such storage being necessary to the general welfare, the question of the practicability of impounding water naturally arises.

tion.

*

The solution of this question is found primarily in an accurate determination of the depth of the annual rain-fall, with both the maximum and the minimum that may be expected in the district under consideration; also any peculiarities of its distribuHaving reliable data upon the above points, the next subject of investigation is, what amount of water-flow becomes available, due allowance being made for evaporation, the selection of reservoir sites, and proportioning their size to the area of the catchment basin after a study of the drainage area in every particular. These latter questions are for the engineer.

It is quite clear that the Signal Service officers had no thought of the necessity of a topographical survey such as the Director of the Geolog. ical Survey declares is required.

By a series of tables and charts Lieutenant Glassford presents the annual precipitation in this Territory. It appears that in the southwestern and western parts of Arizona the rain-fall is extremely small, ranging from 2 to 6 inches annually-a record as brief as is anywhere presented in the world. Rising into the more elevated eastern half, central, and northern portions, the annual average of observations taken by the Signal Service ranges from 10 to 20 inches. Just over the line in Utah it rises to 36 inches, and at the head of the Gila River it is 33 inches. These figures are those of valley and cañon stations only; and for mountain summit and high plateau from three to five times more must be added.

There are two rainy seasons in Arizona-one in winter, one in summer. With the disappearance of the last snows the summer rains com

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mence. The winter precipitation never fails to flood the streams each year, and, continues Lieutenant Glassford, "Contrasting Arizona with the Pacific coast States, if she has not so great an amount of rain-fall it comes differently distributed, and experience may prove the dual rainy seasons of Arizona have not unequal advantages with the single but greater one of those States."

The present progress of reclamation is shown in the following table:

These figures are entirely taken from county reports. The ditch system constructing in Yuma County will, when completed, have a total length of 241 miles and an acreage of 207,000. The total cost will be $1,318,000, or nearly $5,500 per mile. The canals under way in Maricopa County will, when completed, cover 404,900 acres and have a total length of 425 miles. Apache County reports 150,000 acres reclaimed, Pima County 2,500,000 acres, and Cochise 310,000 acres. Of the area "under ditch," about two-thirds are actually cultivated. One of the mistakes observed by your committee in the way of irrigation enterprise is found in the demand by active citizens, so far as heard before the committee, for the maintenance of large areas of land in few hands. The desert-land act policy was strongly supported by such witnesses, and they protested against its repeal, declaring that it is now impossible to organize irrigation enterprises upon the homestead principle, and the co-operation of the settlers in public lands under it.

Your committee believes such arguments to be fallacious and, as it has already shown, that the district system will, through community co-operation, result in successful reclamation on a large scale of our arid public domain. Owing to the want of railroad facilities and the circumstances attending the committee's inquiry in Arizona, it was found impossible to obtain the evidence of the smaller farmers therein, but all the facts go to show that the irrigation district system as projected in the bill presented for the organization and direction of a national irrigation survey is equally as applicable and beneficial to Arizona as it is to California or elsewhere.

UNDER-GROUND WATERS AND IRRIGATION IN TEXAS.

The session held at El Paso, Tex., was noticeable for its presentation of the international conditions which have arisen through the consumption of the Rio Grande water within the United States for irrigation purposes. The boundary and other questions involved by the shifting channel and conditions of that stream, have been already discussed. The irrigation aspect is, however, part of the international ques

tion, inasmuch as the entire consumption of the river by our own people is proving destructive to the very life of the heretofore thriving farming communities, within our neighbor's territory, found along the western bank of the lower Rio Grande Valley. There are 50,000 Mexican people largely dependent upon irrigation, whose equal rights to the water have been solemnly guarantied by treaty. At the time of your committee's session, the Rio Grande was nearly dry for a distance of 500 miles.

This fact was due not only to the drought, but as largely to the use of the stream for agricultural purposes by the farmers of the valley of San Luis, and of the Conejos, within the State of Colorado. At least 150,000 people resident in New Mexico, Texas, and the Mexican State of Chihuahua are in danger of continued impoverishment by the conversion above of the living waters to the uses of the enterprising people of southern Colorado. This must go on practically unchecked, unless the running waters are supplemented by the storage of the storm and flood supplies of the region. The Director of the Geological Survey has at length and with great ability analyzed the situation in the Rio Grande Valley. He has also given his views of the remedial measures that must be adopted.

Your committee calls earnest attention to the evidence taken at El Paso, Sante Fé, and Las Cruces, bearing upon the situation in the Rio Grande Valley, which will be found in the third volume of the printed testimony. Western Texas, in its relation to reclamation, is divided, by the experts who testified, into three divisions. From El Paso to the one hundred and fifth degree of west longitude, and southward to the gulf, it forms a territory entirely arid in character, the rain-fall ranging from but 8 to 11 inches per annum. The one hundred and second meridian marks the eastern limit of that which is termed semi-arid, and from the one hundred and second degree to the ninety-seventh degree the sub humid area is found. These divisions present very different conditions. The whole region, almost an empire in itself, finds place within its borders for all the problems in irrigation. Within the arid section, mountain and local storage with surface distribution, must afford the chief solution for its aridity. Besides the Rio Grande, the Pecos, Colorado, Brazos, San Saba, Neuces, Devil, and other minor rivers and creeks, will assist in the reclamation of an extensive area. Except along the Rio Grande above Fort Quitman, and below from Laredo, irrigation has been considered almost impossible. A generation since a much larger area, however, was cultivated in the Rio Grande Valley between El Paso and Presido del Norte. At present some 18,000 acres are under cultivation on the Mexican side. There are ditches for 30,000 acres. About 6,000 acres are cultivated near El Paso and below; altogether from Western Texas, testimony was received showing an irrigated area of at least 150,000 acres, with ditches in process of construction to serve at least 75,000 more acres.

The semi-arid section includes a large portion of that remarkable tract known as the "Staked Plains," as well as the Pan Handle section of Texas. One of the most intelligent witnesses describes this region as follows:

Beginning at the Brazos River, which is at an altitude of about 900 feet, the country rises in steps toward the west. It is generally in the form of one plateau above another. So you proceed westward from Brazos River 20 or 30 miles, and you come to a bluff 200 or 300 feet in height, and above that is a plateau which extends 20 or 30 miles. The difference in altitude is from 150 to 300 feet in these plateaus. From west of the Colorado River the rain-fall is from 20 to 46 inches, with an average of 26, and in that country it has not been found necessary to irrigate, although it is

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found advisable with the garden crops, vegetables, and things of that description. They have been benefited by irrigation. On the Concho near San Angela there are about 5,000 acres under cultivation by irrigation, and all the waters are obtained from the North and Middle Concho Rivers. About 50 miles north of San Angela that river springs out of the ground. Above that there is no river, but simply an old river-bed that extends all of 300 miles across the country into New Mexico. In the north branch of the Concho River, which is known where it crosses the Texas Pacific Railroad as the Mustang, irrigation is considered necessary.

The Great Plain, where traversed by the Texas and Pacific Railway, constitutes a table-land about 65 miles in width, widening out northwardly, and extending into the Pan Handle several hundred miles. Its most southerly point is about 60 miles south of Midland, Tex. Its outline is well defined, its edges consisting of rocky bluffs extending for hundreds of miles, forming many bold promontories and shelters of coves. At some remote period of time its eastern edge was the shore-line of some great sea, which, as it receded eastwardly and southwardly, cut new shore-lines, converting the stretch of country between the plain and the Brazos River into a series of benches or table-lands, lying one above the other like the steps in a stairway, while the last step in the grand stairway, the eastern edge of the plain, has an altitude of 2,700 feet.

Before the creation of the Pecos Valley the plain seems to have been continuous with the eastern slope of the mountain ranges of New Mexico and western Texas. This would appear from the fact that the surface of the plain presents a gradual fall from the north and west toward the southeast, the altitudes from its western to its eastern edge being as follows: Douro Station, 3,100 feet; Odessa, 2,900 feet; Warfield, 2,875 feet; Midland, 2,780 feet; Marienfeld, 2,700 feet; the southern edge about 2,300 feet. Through some convulsion of nature a break in the strata was formed near its eastern edge, forming what is now known as Sulphur Draw, in Howard County, and probably several other fractures will be found north and west several hundred miles distant. This would seem to be indicated by the fact that the strata of the plain are continuous, and that water is usually found in abundance below the limestone, and that this supply does not seem in the least to be disturbed by either heavy local rains or long periods of drought. The water seems to come for a distance of hundreds of miles, and wherever the limestone is penetrated the supply is permanent. The local rain-fall seems to find its way through the various "draws" to the headwaters of the Colorado and Concho Rivers, and is eventually carried to the Gulf of Mexico, or passes through Red River into the Mississippi. The dark-colored "rises" of the Colorado River always indicate local rains in central Texas, and the "red rises" heavy rains on the Staked Plain. These rivers carry off the surface drainage. The underground drainage, namely, the waters under the limestone strata, work their way to the San Marcos, San Antonio, Guadaloupe, Nueces, Sabinal, and many other rivers, which rise and fall at the same time that do the Rio Grande and the Pecos, both of which receive their waters from the mountain snows of New Mexico and western Texas.

The "draws" above mentioned seem to be able-bodied rivers that have retired from business. In times gone by they have carried great volumes of water, and have cut their way through solid limestone ledges, their banks being well defined to this day. During heavy rains they resume business in a small way, occasionally drowning a flock of sheep that are feeding on their grass-covered beds. Generally the water is lost in a few days, having percolated through the sand to the limestone layer beneath, which is generally impervious. Most of these "draws" are file with silt and sand blown in from the plain. They drain many hundreds of miles in area, and in many of them water in great quantity is found at a depth of 2 to 20 feet. Several could, without great expense, be again converted into flowing streams, carried to the higher lying lands, and be made to irrigate a considerable area. Mustang Draw, in Martin County, by the use of 5 or 6 miles of flumes, could probably be put to good use in this manner, as water in abundance is found at a depth varying from 2 to 6 feet. All the "draw" water will, of course, be surface water, derived from local rains.

The "underground water" is generally found at varying depth. At Marienfeld, on the eastern edge of the plain, at from 60 to 90 feet; at Germania, 10 miles west, at 45 to 60 feet; at Midland, 20 miles west, at 35 to 50 feet; at Odessa, 40 miles west, at 30 to 50 feet; at Douro, near western edge of the plain, none. In a few localities "joint clay," a water-proof material on which the underground" water rests, comes close to the surface. No water was found, though this material has often been penetrated to a depth of 500 feet. A few of the surface wells are brackish and several salty, but generally the water is good. Several springs containing soda, sulphur, or gypsum water, as well as a few wet weather salt lakes, are also found on the plain. The only permanent running stream on the Staked Plain is "Running Water," in Dickens County, a bright, sparkling stream that suddenly breaks out of the ground, ripples over a pebbly bottom for a distance of 10 miles and then mysteriously disap

S. Rep. 928-5

pears like many other streams west of the Pecos River, notably Leon Wells, Comanche Springs, Escondido, Limpia, and Toyah Creek, or the underground river near Castle Mountain, in Crane County, which is working its way to daylight by washing away the roof covering it, occasionally causing a part of it to fall in. A similar stream exists in the northern part of Crocket County, which was not known to exist a few years ago, though a recent cave-in exposed an abundant water supply 20 feet below the surface.

Nearly all the wells dug or bored in the "underground" water, under the limestone, show a tendency to rise above the point where first water was reached. In some localities a rise of 20 or 30 feet was observed, showing that the supply is under considerable pressure. Borings at Odessa have shown five separate layers or deposits of water to exist between the surface and the "joint clay" 100 feet below. Between the Staked Plain and the Pecos River is an ancient fresh-water lake basin, known as "the White Sand Hills," which is covered with numerous ponds of pure fresh water. The supply is permanent, and said to be inexhaustible. The railway wells at Monahans, in this locality, furnish an immense supply. Altitude, 2,620 feet. The wells west of this and to the Pecos draw their supply from the seepage of the Pecos River. East of the Staked Plain the water supply in wells is variable as to quantity, quality, and depth. In Howard County good water is abundant in the southern part, rather deep in the northern part, and brackish in the town of Big Spring. In Mitchell County, generally good at 30 to 50 feet, sometimes strongly alkaline. Several wells bored are capable of furnishing 9,000 gallons of water per hour continuously. At a depth of 200 to 300 feet super-saturated salt brine, claimed to be chemically pure, is found in inexhaustible quantity, and a fine grade of salt is manufactured. The Colorado River carries water in its bed nearly all year round. Its water here is said to be brackish and salty. A chemical examination will have to determine whether or not the water can be used for purposes of irrigation."

The extent of the underground water supply described by Mr. Roesler may be partly realized by the fact that, sparse as the settlements are, nearly one thousand wells, about one-fifth of which are artesian in character and nearly all of which come close to the surface, have already been bored within the regions described. The surplus of these wells is in many instances distributed by small ditches and flumes. Small storage basins are also maintained by them. The semi-arid section is remarkable also for the great springs which are found in many parts of it. The most notable of all these are those at Lampasas, which discharge daily about 1,400,000,000 gallons of water. There are many others of lesser magnitude, but all are remarkable for the volume of water that flows from them.

The products of western Texas are valuable enough to warrant the cost of a thorough examination of its water supplies. The Staked Plain will furnish abundantly the best fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone, ripening them earlier than elsewhere, and competing easily also with both California and New Mexico as to the quality and quantity of its vines and their products. The underflow problems on the Staked Plains and in the Pan Handle, as well as the spring region of southeast New Mexico, are of the greatest importance and will bear the fullest examination.

WHAT NEW MEXICO PRESENTS.

Two extensive river valleys bisect the larger portion of the Territory of New Mexico. The Rio Grande, as is well-known, passes through it from north to south. Within the New Mexican portion of that valley and its immediate streams there are about 100,000 people dependent upon irrigation and the land cultivated through it for their sustenance. East of the Rio Grande, rising in the northern portion of the Territory, the Rio Pecos carries a considerable body of water southward into Texas to its junction with the Rio Grande in that State. For twothirds of its course in New Mexico it can be made to serve a large area of arid land. Reclamation has already commenced therein on an extensive scale, and some 30,000 acres are now cultivated and under