THE IRRIGATION AGL. 345 



contribute to aid irrigation. I therefore consider the decision of the 

 Supreme Court as a substantial victory for our company as it will be 

 impossible for the government to ever prove that the water to be 

 utilized by this irrigation system would in any manner substantially 

 aid navigation below here. In fact the navigation below here is 

 farcical. A steamer makes occasional trips and only draws 28 inches 

 of water for a short distance from the gulf, which waters are con- 

 tributed to the Rio Grande by the Pecos, Concho, San Juan and 

 other tributaries putting into the river hundreds of miles from 

 here. 



In the trial of the case in New Mexico there was also a precedence 

 made as to proving the river navigable in the territory which theory 



RIVER WHEN DRY. 



was backed up solely by an affidavit of Brigadier General Miles that 

 sometime in the long past he had floated a raft of cotton wood poles 

 from Canutillo to El Paso, and someone else had floated some tele- 

 graph poles around a bend in the river during high water. 



There seems to have been an impression prevalent in El Paso if 

 the Elephant Butte Dam company could be prevented from building 

 its dam the better show would be given the International, which I 

 regard as a serious error. For enough water comes down during 

 periods of flood to fill several reservoirs, such as the International 

 and the Elephant Butte dam. 



There is another feature to this matter and that is the Elephant 

 Butte dam would be an actual existing thing at the present time and 

 El Paso would have had a steady water supply if it had not been for this 



