204 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



and the third in charge of Lieutenant C. W. Whipple, Ord- 

 nance Corps, U. S. A. A separate party, under Lieutenant 

 Eric Bergland, Corps of Engineers, was engaged upon the 

 banks of the Colorado River, with the special end in view of 

 determining whether within certain limits of the Grand Canon 

 of the Colorado this stream could be diverted from its pres- 

 ent channel, with a view to utilizing its waters in a system 

 or systems of irrigation. 



The reports received to date, although not final, confirm 

 the idea that within the line of this portion of its flow 

 namely, from a point at the foot of the Grand Canon to the 

 Needles, below Camp Mojare no practicable points were 

 discovered at which the river could be taken from its pres- 

 ent bed with utility for irrigating the comparatively desert 

 wastes on either hand, or any of the valleys known to be of 

 an arable character. Further examinations will be prose- 

 cuted during the winter in the valley of the Lower Colora- 

 do, with a view to determining as to the jM'acticability of 

 points in this portion of the river at which its waters might 

 be diverted, and with what practical results; and also as to 

 whether a series of lakes might or might not be used as 

 links in the chain of communication that would be formed 

 should this great stream be transferred from its present caii- 

 on bed to one of an alluvial character. Taking into account 

 the ratio of evaporation from surfaces of water in these arid 

 regions, the maximum size of the lake surfaces necessary to 

 retain all the waters of this stream in reservoir misdit be 

 determined, and the comparison of this aggregate area to 

 that of the areas of depression found to exist along a line 

 of transit, should such new channel be formed, can be ascer- 

 tained. 



A special party, acting in co-operation with one dispatched 

 by the Smithsonian Institution under the charge of Mr. 

 Schumaker, was placed temporarily in charge of Dr. IT. C. 

 Yarrow, of the Survey, for the purpose of making collections 

 in ethnology upon the southwest coast of California, near 

 Santa Barbara. The party from the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion have carried on their labors upon the island southwest 

 and adjacent to the coast at this point. The results of their 

 labors already transmitted to "Washington show that they 

 were well bestowed ; and without doubt the collections, when 



