THE NEW COLORADO LAKE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3067, 12 March 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEW COLORADO LAKE.

TJhe phenomenon of a new lake in the "Colorado desert that so puzzled and astonished geologists a few mouths back j has, says Science Siftings, now been investigated and reported on by Mr J. J. M'Giliivray, of the United States Mineral Survey Service. He says: —"The Colorado desert lies a short distance north-west of the uppper end of the (Julf of California, and contains not far from 2,500 square miles. The Colorado River, which lias now fboiled it, has been flowing alontr to the cast of it. emptying into the GulE of California. Tho surface of the desert is almost all level acd low, so./ eof it below the sea level. Some few hundreds of years ago it was a bly makinsr in from the Gulf of California, and then served as the outlet of the Colorado River. But the river carried a good deal of sediment, and in time made a bar, which slowly and surely shut off the sea from the south, leaving only a narrow channel for the escape of the river, which cue its way out, probably at some time when it was not carrying much sediment. Then the current became more rapid and cut its way back into the land, and, in doing this, did not necessarily choose the lowest place, bat rather tho place whero tho formation of tho land was soft and easily cut away by the action of tho water,

While the river was cutting its way back it was, of course, carrying more or less sediment, and this wis left along the banks, building them all the time higher, and confining the river more seourely in its bounds. That is the Colorado River as wo have known it ever since its discovery, Meantime, the water left in the shallow lake, cut off from the flow of Iho river, gradually evaporated—a thing that would take but a few years in that country, where the heat is intense and tho humidity very low. That left somewhere about 2,000 miles of desert land covered with a deposit of salt from the sea water which hud evaporated, and most of it below the level of the sea. That is the Colorado desert as is has been known

since its discovery. Then, lust spring, citine the overflow which has bronirht about the present state of affairs. The river was liigh and carrying an. euormous arnout of sediment in proportion to the quantity of water. This gradually filled up the bed of the stream, and caused it to overflow its banks, breaking through into the dry lake where it had formerly flowed. The fact that the water is salt, which exsited much comment at the time the overflow was first discovered, is, of course, duo to the fact that the salt in the sea water which evaporated hundreds of years ago has remained there all the time, and is now once more in solution. The desert, will, no doubt, continue to bo a lake and the outlet of the river unless

i!he breaks in '.he banks of the liror are dammmrd by artificial means, which seems hardly possible, as the river has beon flowing through the stream 200 ft. wide, four feet deep, and flowing at a velocity of five feet a second. It is au interesting fact, to note that tho military, survey made iu 1853 went over this ground and predicted the very thing which has now happened. The flooding of the desert will be a good thing for the surrouuding country, for it does away with a large tract of absolute useless laud so barren that it is iinposible to raise there what one man iu Texas said they could mostly raise in his town, and it will increase the humidit}' of tho surrounding territory. Nature has done with this piece of waste land what it has often been proposed to do by private enterprise or by'public appropriation. Congress has often been uslcad to make an appropriation for that purpose." Mr M'Gillvary has also some interesting things to say about Death Valley, which he surveyed "It has been called a terra incognita, and a place whero no human being could live. _ Well it is bad enough, perhaps not quite as bid as that. The great trouble is tho scarcity of water and the intense heat but many prospecting parties go there looking for veins or «re and to take out borax. The richest borax mines iu the world are found then 1 . The valley is about 75 miles long by 10 miles wide. The lowest point is near the centre, which is 150 ft. below the level of the sea. Just IS miles west of the central point is Telescope Peak, 11,000 feet above the level of the sea, and 15 miles west is Mount Lo Count in the Funeral Mountains 8,000 feet high. The valley runs almost duo north and south, which is one reason for the extremo heat. The only stream of water in or near the valley flows in tho upper end and forms a marsh in tho bed of j the valley. This marsh gives out a horrible odour of sulphurotted hydrogen, the g*s which makes a rotten egg so offensive. Where the water of this stream comes from is not definitely known but in my opinion it comes from Owen s Lake, beyond the tho Telescope Mountains to the west, flowing down the val-

ley by some subterranean passage. The same impurities found in .the stream are also found in the lake, where the water is so saturated with salt, boracio acid, ko., that one can no more sink in it than in the water of the Great Salt Lake ; and is so staturated that after swimming in it a little while, the skin nil over my body was gnawed and m>ide very Borp by the acids. Another reason why I think the waters of the strerm enters the valley by some fixed subterranean source is t.io fact that no matter what the season, the flow from the springs that feed the marh is' always exactly the same. The heat there it intense. A man cannot, gojjthere an hour without water without becoming insane. While wn were surveying there wo had a wooden cased thermometer that is useel by the Signal Service. It was huusr in the shade by the side of our shed with the only stream in the country flowinir direetly under it, and it repeatedly registered 130 dog. ; and for forty eight hours in 1553, when I was surveying, the thermometor novor once I went below 104 deg.