126 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of the mountains would cause an overflow. To protect the irrigation 

 works and the settlements along the route, a tunnel was excavated in 

 the mountains to give an outlet, in another direction, to the waters of 

 the lake when they rose to a height to threaten inundation. 



"At the coming of the Spaniard the land everywhere teemed with 

 evidence of agricultural wealth," said Senor Estacia, reflectively. 

 "Today the greater part of this paradise has reverted to its original 

 arid condition. Here and there where some old dirt-filled and long 

 forgotten tunnel leaks a little moisture, the rank vegetation of our 

 tropics, in contrast with the surrounding arid wastes, shows the power 

 of irrigation. " 



This gives rise to the reflection that the Spaniards, wherever their 

 star of chivalry or rapacity for wealth led them, have destroyed and 

 never created. Their coming has always been a curse to the people 

 they conquered. Chivalric and recklessly brave, they yet considered 

 the civilization and population of the New World as but barbaric and 

 pagan and fit only for destruction. 



But these native tribes, people, governments benighted and 

 heathen had battled with Nature, learned the secret of success and 

 conquered under the most adverse circumstances. They made use of 

 mountain lakes and natural reservoirs, wherein were stored the waters 

 of the rainy season and the melting snows, to be used during the dry 

 season. 



We have today in California, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, 

 Utah and the northwestern states, millions of acres of land, the pro- 

 ductive capacity of which is beyond compute, which can and will be 

 reclaimed eventually. Great mountain gorges forming natural reser- 

 voirs, can be used for storage purposes, and the land, useless today, 

 will become an empire of agricultural wealth, worth far more fabulous 

 sums than the rich mines adjacent to them, 



