144 LANDS OF THE ARID REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Square miles | Acres cultiva- | ae 
eee 1 - . Square milesof Acres irrigable 
Districts cultivated ted during... 
: nae Be irrigable land. land. 
during 1877. 1877. 
||, Sank etouviQll 6 yess ee ate sere me eae eee ee eee tere 17 11, 000 31.2 20, 000 
Gumnisont 2s 2226.22 2 .cseteccs nts ese aaeee teen aeeee ese 4.4 2, 800 6.2 4, 000 
Sevier Valley above Gunnison ...-....-..--..-.-..+----- 16.5 10, 500 54.7 35, 000 
CircleVialle ya nces= seer ace eee nee eee re 1,2 750 6.3 4, 000 
| Panenitchand above +2. =n s2ses tenance a= tae eee 2.8 1, 800 11 7, 000 
| | , | 
HRT lamin anor eng aaOO Re 0 OSR ODAC AnICOn ecm eeEsa= | 41.9 26, 850 109. 4 | 70, 000 
| | 
Nevertheless, I am persuaded that it will be practicable to extend the 
possibility of irrigation by an increase of water supply to a degree sufficient 
to irrigate every acre of the main valley of the Sevier which can be 
reached by canals, and which is also fit for cultivation. It is by the 
method of artificial reservoirs. There is probably no region in the world 
more admirably suited to the easy, cheap, and efficient application of this 
method than this very region drained by the Sevier River. The sources 
of this river are found at high altitudes, but these high places are not 
mountains in the ordinary sense, but great plateaus with broad summits. 
These table tops have vast numbers of large basins broad enough for great 
ponds, which are now drained by narrow gorges cut through volcanic 
sheets and leading down to lower levels. These gorges are in most cases 
narrow canons, which, being once barred across, will dam the waters above 
them. I could not select a better example than the following: About 15 
miles southwest of the town of Panguitch is a broad basin, the central part 
of which is occupied by a shallow lake, about 14 miles long and nearly a 
mile wide, called Panguitch Lake. Its altitude is about 8,200 feet. It is 
completely surrounded with barriers, nowhere less than 100 feet in height, 
and finds its drainage through a narrow cleft on the northeast side. It 
receives the influx of two fine streams, which in May and June must carry 
heavy floods of water from the lofty rim and broad watershed of the 
Panguitch Plateau lying to the westward. Even in August their united 
flow must reach 50 feet per second. By throwing a dam 30 feet high and 
50 or 60 feet long across the outlet between its walls of solid trachyte, a 
lake would be formed with an area of 6 or 7 square miles. There are 
many such basins upon the Panguitch Plateau, and it would be a low 
estimate to say that it would be possible, at comparatively small expense, 
