152 THE 1RR1GA TION A GE. 



Some fears have been expressed that the water supply will prove 

 inadequate. In 1897, the river was dry near its mouth the last of 

 August. I do not share this fear. Enough water runs to waste in 

 June to irrigate all the land in the valley for the entire year. The 

 seepage water from the small area now under irrigation is largely 

 absorbed in moistening the unirrigated land that surrounds it. If all 

 of the land under ditches was irrigated the subsoil would soon be sat- 

 urated and the water and seepage from irrigation in May and June 

 would find its way back to the stream and be sufficient to meet the 

 demand in July and August. As it is, wherever irrigated fields adjoin 

 the river springs have appeared along the banks below. In a long 

 and narrow valley like this it is possible for the same water to be 

 used three or four times during a single season. I believe, therefore, 

 thai' an abundance of water is not to be secured by restricting the irri- 

 gated area, but by arranging to use as much water as possible during 

 May, June and the early part of July, and that when this is done 

 there will be less danger of a shortage than there is under present 

 conditions. 



IRRIGABLE LANDS ALONG WIND RIVER. 



After leaving Meeteetse we traveled south for fifty miles over a 

 country having little or no agricultural future. The country is 

 broken, the valleys are narrow and none of the streams crossed, except 

 Owl Creek, have a perennial flow. At this point we climbed the Owl 

 Creek range which divides the Big Horn Basin from the valley of 

 Wood river. It requires a day and a half to reach Wind river at Crow 

 Heart Butte, the place where we first caught sight of it, and it is diffi- 

 cult to imagine a " more absolutely arid and worthless country than 

 we crossed during this time. Nor were the spirits of our party im- 

 proved by the knowledge that we were in the immediate proximity 

 of an organized band of thieves, known as the Hole-in-the-Wall gang, 

 which had been engaged in stealing horses, holding up stage coaches 

 and robbing the mails of that section. The prospect of losing our 

 horses and having to foot it out of a country so remote and desolate 

 was not reassuring. Fortunately no such ill luck befell us. 



We were now in the Shoshone Indian Reservation and away from 

 all settlements. We saw a few deserted log houses and crooked and 

 dilapidated fences which indicated that some of the Indians had been 

 allotted lands in severalty, but there was nothing to show that they 

 had made any progress as irrigators. 



Wind river is a beautiful stream. We crossed it about the lowest 

 point in the year, yet its discharge was 1,500 cubic feet a second and 

 fording it was something of an adventure. On the north side the bad 

 lands and high bluffs will always prevent any important agricultural 

 development, but along the lower half of the river broad and exten- 

 sive areas can be brought under cultivation by the construction of 



