156 LANDS OF THE ARID REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
on it. So great during the floods is this deposit from the water used in 
irrigation that the ground becomes completely coated with an impervious 
layer, and growing crops, especially of small grains, suffer from the inability 
of the soil to absorb the water conducted on it. The irrigating capacity 
of this stream during the critical period could be greatly increased by the 
construction of reservoirs in which to store the great surplus of water that 
flows earlier in the season. The canons above the valleys offer very 
favorable opportunities for building the necessary dams and embankments. 
THE ESCALANTE RIVER. 
This stream enters the Colorado next north of the Paria. It rises 
under the wall forming the eastern face of the Aquarius Plateau; flows first 
northeast, then east, and finally southeast, before reaching the Colorado. 
Its length is 90 miles, the lower three-fourths being in a narrow canon 
having vertical walls ranging from 900 to 1,200 feet in height. Through 
this gorge the river sweeps, sometimes filling the whole space from wall to 
wall; sometimes winding from side to side in a flood plain of sand, and 
always shifting its bed more or less with every freshet. Not an acre of 
accessible arable land is known in the whole length of the canon, and its 
depth precludes the possibility of using the waters of the river on the lands 
above. Near the head of the southern branch of the Escalante, in what is 
known as Potato Valley, and at an elevation of about 5,000 feet, is an area 
of about 6 square miles of available land. The flow of water in this branch 
was 90 cubic feet per second in July, 1875. A portion of this area is now 
under cultivation, and is said to produce good crops. A portion of the east 
flank of the Aquarius Plateau is drained by a number of creeks that join 
the Escalante in the deep gorge below Potato Valley; but they all enter 
close canons, in which no areas of arable land are known at an altitude 
low enough for successful cultivation. Part of the waters of these creeks 
might be used to irrigate grass lands at an altitude of about 8,000 feet; 
but the conditions of pasturage are such in this region that the amount 
practically available is small. 
