78 BOTANICAL SURVEY OF THE CCEUB D'ALENE MOUNTAINS. 



over the fields; new and wider stream channels, cut by the spring tor- 

 rents, which in narrow valleys with much alluvium becomes a serious 

 matter, especially along the portions of the streams which meander 

 through the plains, and pretty certainly a lessened amount of rainfall 

 over the plains area. It is a matter of popular experience that the 

 longer the snow remains on the mountains the more abundant and 

 copious are the spring and summer showers on the open and timberless 

 regions. 



The following clipping from the Spokesman-He view, a newspaper 

 published at Spokane, Wash., is so pertinent to the subject of the 

 water supply of the Cteur d'Alenes "as affected by the destruction of 

 the forests that it is here appended, with the necessary comment for a 

 proper understanding of the same: 



The water problem is a serious one in the Cu'ur d'Alenes at present. The mills 

 depending upon a water supply have in many cases been compelled to closedown. 

 A number of reservoirs are l>ein<;- built tins fall, and this will greatly augment the 

 supply. 



The luck of water is seriously interfering with the working of the Hunter mill. 

 As a consequence, 50 men were hud oil' last weeh, as the stopcs and chutes were full 

 of ore and the mill could not keep pace with the mine. 



The mills to which these paragraphs refer are concentrating plants, 

 and are situated partly in Canyon Creek, a tributary of the South 

 Fork, and partly in the upper portion of the valley of the South Fork. 

 They are nearly in the central areas of the great burns that have 

 spread from the Mullau road and from the placer iields in the south- 

 eastern parts of the North Fork basin. The streams they utilize head 

 and have their tributaries almost wholly in and from mountain slopes 

 on which the destruction of the forest varies from 80 per cent to total. 

 Each of the streams carries a very much greater volume of water in 

 the spring now than was the case in the past. This is shown conclu- 

 sively by the cutting of the channels, the height of the lodged drift- 

 wood, and tin 1 greater amount of sand, gravel, and rock washed down 

 to lower levels each spring. Even were there present none of these 

 physical signs, a moment's reflection would convince us that such must 

 be the case. The hills, once forested, are now bare; the winter's accu- 

 mulation of snow, unprotected from the direct rays of the sun, melts 

 rapidly in the spring; the rain and snow water, not now held batik by 

 the deep humus and the other multitudinous obstacles which were there 

 when the forest covered the slopes, runs off swiftly. In the summer 

 the evaporation is enormously increased from the denuded areas. A 

 scarcity of water during a portion of the year is the inevitable result. 

 Recourse will now be had to the reservoir system, with a fair prospect 

 of much trouble in controlling the spring Hoods. The Hunter prop- 

 erty, referred to above, is the most easterly of the concentrating 

 works in the South Fork valley, and as a consequence has the least 

 amount of available water from this stream. 



