834 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
These old channels, some of them intertwining and scarcely distin- 
guishable upon the surface, have not all been traced out, but a few of 
them are so well marked as to have received a distinct name and are 
shown upon the map. The most northerly of these, the one lying 
immediately south of the international boundary, is known as the 
Alamo. South of this the next decided channel or series of channels 
is called the Padrones, and still south of these is a channel known as 
the Pescadero, this latter extending westerly to an open body of water 
known as Volcano Lake, from the fact that it is surrounded by a num- 
ber of very remarkable small mud volcanoes. 
Extending northerly from Volcano Lake are channels, leading 
through New River, paralleling in places the Alamo and ending in 
the Salton Sea. Leading southerly from Volcano Lake and from the 
channels of the Pescadero is a broad stream known as Hardy’s Colo- 
rado, one of the largest of the ancient beds of the great river, which 
joins the latter shortly before it enters the Gulf of California. 
HISTORY OF RECENT OVERFLOW. 
To understand the cause of the recent rapid increase in the 
Salton Sea it is necessary to go back a little into the history of 
the development of the desert land lying south of the Salton Sea. 
This land has been known for some decades and has had a reputa- 
tion of extreme aridity. Certain adventurous men, more far- 
sighted than others, however, saw the possibilities of agricultural de- 
velopment, and after much negotiation finally formed a company 
which, through a subsidiary corporation formed under the Mexican 
law, succeeded in perfecting plans for diverting some of the water of 
the Colorado River. This was done by a cut in the west bank of 
the river in the United States near the international boundary. The 
ditch or canal thus made carried water south across the line into 
Mexico, and then into the head of one of the ancient channels of the 
Alamo River. This company is known as the California Development 
Company of New Jersey. Its subsidiary Mexican corporation is 
known as La Sociedad de Yrrigacion y Terranos de la Baja Cali- 
fornia (Sociedad Anonima). 
Finally the water is diverted back into the United States and is 
there disposed of to numerous corporations of irrigators for the pur- 
pose of receiving and distributing the water to the cultivators of the 
soil. Pl. II shows the timber head gates at what is known as Sharp’s 
heading, upon which depends the water supply of the lands of Im- 
perial Valley. 
The project of reclamation of the desert was an ambitious one and 
with the capital available was, to say the least, hazardous. In fact, 
it is doubtful whether the original promoters of the enterprise rea- 
lized the great expenditure which would be necessary to make this a 
