IRRIGABLE LANDS OF THE VALLEY OF THE SEVIER. es 4 
in addition, a certain area of sandy land of an inferior degree of excellence. 
The area of best bottom land will probably reach as high as 6,000 acres. 
In this area there is probably very little danger from early frosts, as the 
6,000 feet contour passes through the middle of the valley, and, as already 
stated, the areas which lie within this limit are reasonably safe from this 
occurrence. At the north end of Cirele Valley we find the junction of the 
two main forks of the Sevier River. From the junction the main stream 
runs northward for nearly 20 miles, and throughout this entire stretch 
there is but little arable land. Upon both sides of the river there are long 
alluvial slopes, made up of stony materials and coarse gravels, through 
which a plow could scarcely be driven. A portion of the way the river 
runs between rocks and low cliffs and in abrupt canons, cutting through 
old trachyte and basaltic outflows. Reaching Marysvale, we find a sufti- 
cient area for three or four good sized farms, consisting of bottom land of 
the finest quality, which can be watered either from the Sevier River itself 
or from two considerable aftluents which come roaring down out of the 
Beaver Mountains. North of Marysvale is a barrier thrown across the 
valley, consisting of rugged hills of rhyolitic rocks, through which the river 
has cut a deep canon; but agriculture in any portion of this barrier is out 
of the question. The river emerges from it at the head of what may be 
vulled its main or lower valley, near the Mormon settlement called Joseph 
City. From this point northward we find what must undoubtedly become 
the great agricultural area of southern Utah. It is a magnificent valley, 
nowhere less than 5 miles in width, and at least 60 miles in length, with 
abrupt mountain walls on either side, and almost the whole of its soil 
consisting of alluvial cones, and susceptible of a high degree of cultivation. 
The limit of the amount of land in this valley which can be irrigated is 
measured by the quantity of water which can be found to turn upon it. 
The western side of the valley is flanked by abrupt walls of sedimentary 
rocks. As I have before stated, the alluvial cones which find their origin 
in the degradation of these sedimentary walls are invariably composed of 
finer materials than those which come from the breaking up of voleanic 
rocks. The soil, therefore, is much more readily plowed and planted than 
the corresponding cones farther up the river. The surface of these cones, 
18 aRk 
