THE POSSIBILITIES OF S ALTON SEA 17 



Whether or not this attempt, when tested, proves successful, how- 

 ever, the damage being continually done to this region can not be ex- 

 pected to end at once. Several hundred thousands of dollars damage 

 has already been done by the truant river, and even if the surplus flow 

 into the Sink is stopped by the new gates, the lake that covers Salton 

 and its salt works will still remain, which evaporation, almost unaided, 

 will have to drain. It will therefore be a long time before Salton, the 

 submerged headquarters of the New Liverpool Salt Works, can be re- 

 placed upon the map and the Southern Pacific Eailroad reconstructed 

 upon its old road bed. 



The damage that threatens this sunken area, in case the river is 

 not controlled, has already been briefly mentioned. If for some un- 

 foreseen and improbable cause the present attempt should fail or be 

 abandoned, and no other attempts inaugurated, the water would 

 gradually cut the present irrigation canal so deep that the entire flow 

 of the river would be side-tracked into Salton Sea. The water would 

 slowly rise until a lake would be created as large in area as, or larger 

 than, Great Salt Lake of Utah, and the entire Imperial Valley, which 

 thus far has not suffered, would be covered with water. The lake 

 would not only rise to the sea-level line, but instead, on account of the 

 elevation of the enclosing rim, it would have to reach to an elevation 

 of fifteen or twenty feet above sea level, at which point it would over- 

 flow the south rim near Volcano Lake and pass southward until it 

 would again enter the Colorado Eiver near the Gulf. Should it be 

 the desire at any time to convert this area into a sea-level lake, this 

 outlet channel, which would pass over very loose soil, could be dredged 

 very easily into a sea-level inlet from the Gulf. 



To fill this sunken area with water from the Colorado River would 

 require many years. The average flow of the river during a year is 

 said to be about 15,000 cubic feet per second. This entire amount 

 conveyed into the lake would be subject to a very great shrinkage from 

 evaporation, and it is even possible that this loss would become so 

 great after the lake had spread over a certain area as to equal the 

 inflow from the river, although such is hardly probable. In any case, 

 all attempted computations of such nature would necessarily be very 

 inaccurate, and may as well be omitted. 



In studying the possibility of this area becoming the bed of an 

 inland sea there are even more considerations to be met than are 

 offered by the Imperial Valley land colony and the salt works at Salton. 

 Gilbert E. Bailey, M. E., of Los Angeles, a recognized authority on the 

 mineral resources of California, has made a thorough study of this 

 region, and to the writer he has furnished a partial list of its possibili- 

 ties in this direction. In addition to the salt deposits, large quantities 

 of nitrate, sulphate and carbonate of soda are found at various point? 



