THE SALTON SEA—NEWELL. 341 
giving authority to the Southern Pacific offices in the West to proceed at once 
with efforts to close the break, trusting that the Government as soon as you 
ean secure the necessary Congressional action will assist us with the burden 
The President, in reply, said: 
I am delighted to receive your telegram. Have at once directed the Reclama- 
tion Service to get into touch with you so that as soon as Congress reassembles 
I can recommend legislation which will provide against a repetition of this dis- 
aster and make provision for an equitable distribution of the burden. 
As a result of these telegrams, received in rapid succession, Mr. 
Harriman concluded again to make an effort, and on January 12, 
1907, the President, in accordance with his promise, laid the whole 
matter before Congress. The final effort was successful and before the 
time of the spring flood of 1907 the river had once more been restored 
to its proper channel. During the summer a series of dikes were built, 
intended to prevent any possibility of a recurrence of the danger in 
that part of the river. 
DIFFICULTY OF CLOSURE. 
To one who is accustomed to the surroundings of the ordinary 
river, the problem of turning back the Colorado River into its 
former channel may not appear to be a very difficult matter. But, 
to explain the reason of the failures in rapid succession, it should 
be borne in mind that the river at this point flows over deposits 
of silt and fine sand whose character is such that under a swift 
current they are torn up and carried away with wonderful rapidity. 
Whenever the channel in any notable degree was confined, the water 
at once began burrowing and cutting so that in some cases it is 
claimed that wooden piles over 70 feet long were cut out by the river 
faster than they could be driven. 
It was a simple matter to bring the work of closure or diversion 
to a point where it seemed as though the river could be quickly turned, 
but the constriction of the channel due to any structure resulted in 
increasing the speed of the water and in adding to its consequent 
erosive force to an extent such that in a few hours enormous gaps were 
created. 
Added to the unfavorable character of the bed and banks was the 
fact that the river seldom remained quiet for any considerable length 
of time. It was subject to short violent floods, especially from its 
tributary, the Gila. These occurring at a time when the work was in 
a critical condition quickly rendered useless the efforts of the con- 
structors. 
The method finally adopted for turning the stream was one whose 
success depended upon having at hand a large railroad equipment 
and an enormous amount of material which could be quickly trans- 
ported. 
