230 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



some of them fifty trails wide. The damage done by 

 trails cannot be stopped. Once they begin to cut and 

 form a little "pour-over" in their path, the matter seems 

 to be beyond control, excepting at tremendous cost of 

 labor and material. 



It seems almost impossible to stop the erosive action 

 of the waters. I have been seen lovely mountain 

 meadows drained and ruined by such an arroyo which 

 cut across them, beginning at the lower end with a little 

 pour-off or waterfall, and working back year after year, 

 with increasing rapidity in spite of everything that could 

 be done to stop it. 



In one instance from a little cow trail in the grass 

 an arroyo was cut which in ten years was almost a 

 mile long, fifty feet wide and fifteen feet deep and a 

 meadow, full of marshy places and renowned all over 

 the region for its hay-producing value, was drained as 

 dry as a dusty road. 



Ever since the first settlement of the western ranges 

 this work of erosion has been going on. Like the cattle 

 trails, the wagon roads offered equal facilities to the 

 run-off of the water. The old Santa Fe trail can today 

 be followed for miles by the wide and almost barren 

 streak which it occupies on the prairies. 



The first wagons broke the road which, after being 

 used for a time, begun to show holes and ruts. Then a 

 new one would be made just off the first which in turn 

 would succumb to the wet weather and ruts, and thus 

 in time the road would spread out over a wide area. 



Wherever the road led down a slope the water soon 

 found a handy outlet in the wheel tracks and the rest 

 was only a matter of time. The ruts were worn 



