APPENDIX TO REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 73 



certained by measuriug the volume of each stream . East of Great Salt Lake 

 are great mountain ranges, the Wasatch and the Uinta, and large streams 

 flow from their melting snows all through the summer season. The Bear, 

 the Weber, and the Jordan flow to the lake, and the three rivers can 

 be made to reclaim 800,000 acres of land in their valleys. This is 12i 

 per cent, of the district that they drain. West of the lake the plains 

 are interrupted bj' mountains, but there are none of great magnitude ; 

 the snows of winter are dissipated too early in the spring to be of use 

 for irrigation, and much of the land is an absolute desert. In a total 

 area of 8,300,000 acres only 21,000 acres are of value for farming — one- 

 fourth of one per cent. 



These estimates are based upon the experience of the farmers of the 

 district, who have practiced irrigation for thirty years, and have given 

 it a greater development than can be found elsewhere in the United 

 States. They have now under cultivation a third part of the irrigable 

 lands of the Salt Lake Basin, and are utilizing many of the small 

 streams to the full extent of their capacities. A careful study was made 

 of their operations, for the purpose of learning the quantity of water 

 necessary to redeem a given quantity of land under various conditions 

 of soil and climate, and the resulting determinations were used in com- 

 puting the areas susceptible of irrigation by the streams and parts of 

 streams that are still unused. The greater part of the future extension of 

 the cultivated areas will be accomplished only by extensive engineering 

 works, including the damming of the principal rivers and the construc- 

 tion of long canals. Five million dollars is probably a moderate esti- 

 mate of the cost of redeeming the 500,000 acres that are susceptible of 

 reclamation, and the requisite cai^ital will have to be concentrated upon 

 a small number of large canals. 



Since the first settlement of the Territory, in the year 1847, the water- 

 supply has increased. It is reported by the citizens that each stream 

 is now capable of irrigating a greater area of land than when it was 

 first used. Creeks that once scantily watered a few acres of ground 

 now afford an ample supply for double, treble, or even fifty times the 

 original area. This increase has been accompanied by a rise of Great 

 Salt Lake, which, having no escape for its water except by evaporation, 

 has stored up the surplus from the streams. For the purpose of inves- 

 tigating the extent and the cause of the increase of the streams, Mr. 

 Gilbert made a study of the fluctuations of the lake. It was a matter 

 of common report that the surface of the water had been subject to 

 considerable changes, and that on the whole it had greatly risen since 

 its shores were first settled, but previous to the year 1875 no systematic 

 record of its movements had been kept. In that year a series of obser- 

 vations was inaugurated by Dr. John E. Park, of Salt Lake City, at the 

 suggestion and request of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 A small pillar of granite, graduated to feet and inches, was erected at 

 the water's edge near a rocky islet known as Black Kock. 



