THE IRRIGATION AGE. 115 



those who will pay for it it will necessitate a distinction between pri- 

 orities, between the use of the natural and the stored supply that will 

 lead to unending complications. The truth is that the building of im- 

 portant reservoir systems like this are as much public improvement 

 as the building of roads or the paving of city streets. Even if the 

 reservoirs are built as private enterprises their owners will have to 

 rely upon the state for protection in the distribution, and in this also 

 there will be so many ditches to secure a partial supply for a brief 

 season and so many farms to be watered in part from the natural flow 

 and in part from the stored flow that a separation of public and pri- 

 vate rights seems to be almost impossible. An attempt to frame laws 

 to make the improvement of these natural sites an attractive field for 

 private investment will only increase the complications. No law will 

 be effective without it confers absolute property rights in the stored 

 water and to do this will be to create monopolies which may be a 

 means of oppressing the farmers instead of helping them. Some res- 

 ervoirs can be profitably built as private enterprises, but it is my con- 

 viction that important systems like the one under consideratio ought 

 to be built and operated as public works. 



THE BIG HORN BASIN. 



The second night out from Sheridan we camped almost at the 

 summit of the Big Horn range on the dividing ridge between Tongue 

 river and Shell creek. From the summit of this mountain it is possi- 

 ble to see the snow clad summits of the Shoshone range on the oppo- 

 site side of the Big Horn Basin, and the winding course of the Big 

 Horn river can be traced by the fringe of cottonwood trees which 

 borders it as can that of its two principal tributaries, the Grey Bull 

 and Shoshone rivers on the west. The term "basin" used in describ- 

 ing this valley is correctly used because it is an immense bowl entire- 

 ly surrounded by lofty mountains, but any one who expects to find it 

 presenting the appearance of a valley, as that term is ordinarily used, 

 will be disappointed. The greater part of its surface is of the hilly 

 and broken character. Some of the bad land ridges rise almost to the 

 dignity of mountains and are fully as impassable. The limits of irri- 

 gation are restricted to those level stretches which border immedi- 

 ately on the stream. Outside of this the country is too broken to 

 build ditches and the greater part of the land is unfit for cultivation 

 if water could be carried to it. 



(To be Continued.) 



