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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bottom for the retention of the water in the valley deposits. So 

 great is the capacity for imbibition of these desert plains that 

 every drop of rain upon them, except such as is evaporated, is 

 quickly drunk in, and all the mountain streams of the vast region, 

 with three exceptions, completely disappear upon reaching them, 

 and are known as " lost rivers " in the parlance of the West. Un- 

 der the old erroneous idea that the mountain rocks contained the 

 artesian waters, many hundred futile and costly experiments have 

 been made by the Government, railroad corporations, and private 

 individuals, in boring wells at the margins of these deserts, where 

 the mountain rock was seen disappearing beneath the valley 

 deposit, instead of seeking the lowest topographic point in the 



plains, and relying upon the unconsolidated formation of the des- 

 ert as the probable source of water. 



Within the past few years there have been many accidental 

 demonstrations of this principle ; and when it is generally under- 

 stood, it is probable that in nearly every one of these now useless 

 waste places at least a small quantity of water will be secured, and 

 in many instances good flowing artesian wells. Wells of this 

 character have been procured in great number in California, at 

 Riverside and in the San Joaquin Valley, not one of which pene- 

 trates to the underlying floor of impervious mountain rock, but 

 are all secured in the detrital valley deposit. Similar wells have 

 been found in numbers in the Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah, and 



