April 27, 191 1] 



NATURE 



295 



AMERICA}^ HYDROLOGY.^ 



THE investigations of the hydrographical department of 

 the United States Geological Survey have already 

 received notice in these columns, and of the reports under 

 consideration, two belong to a group which has been 

 described at some length. These are papers Nos. 262 and 

 264, dealing with the conditions of stream and river flow 

 on the South Atlantic coast and the eastern Gulf of 



Fig. I. — Synclinal Valley of Upper Willow Creek, Colorado, 



^iexico tM. R. Hall and R. H. Bolster), and on the St. 

 .awrence basin (C. C. Covert, A. H. Horton, and R. H. 

 jlster). 



The other five reports are of more distinctive character, 

 nd call for individual notice. 

 Paper No. 260 is a preliminary report on the ground 

 aters ot the Estancia Valley, New Mexico (Oscar E. 

 leinger). It is an investigation of the conditions affect- 

 ig the irrigation of a valley in the centre of New Mexico, 

 'hich is a depression 2000 square miles in area, without 

 ny drainage outlet. Insufficient rainfalls have been the 

 ause of several crop failures. The proposal is to utilise 

 ells for the supply of water, and, except perhaps in the 

 jntral portion, where the presence of alkali threatens to 

 npair seriously their quality, the prospect, on the whole, 

 I favourable to a development of these subterranean 

 pplies. 



Paper No. 240 deals with the geology and water re- 



ources of the San Luis Valley, Colorado (C. E. Sieben- 



al). This valley lies in the south central part of the 



tate of California, and has a length from north to south 



f 150 miles, and a maximum breadth of 50 miles. The 



rea is drained by the Rio Grande, with a number of 



ributary streams, notably the Conejos River and La 



ara, Alamosa, and Saguache Creeks. The geology of the 



istrict is summed up as a " Miocene deposition, uncon- 



Drmablc below, of a series of sands, gravels, and inter- 



dded lavas and tuffs, followed by orographic movements 



nd additional volcanic activity, succeeded by quiet de- 



Osition of sands and clays in fresh-water lakes, passing 



rithout stratigraphic break into Pleistocene and Recent 



eposits." As regards its water resources, the San Luis 



"alley is an " almost ideal example of the artesian basin." 



ater occurs in beds of fine blue to grey sand, varying 



I to 20 feet or more in thickness, separated from 



another by beds of blue clay ranging from a foot to 



eral hundred feet in thickness. The source of supply 



le mountain streams which flow down from the higher 



and disappear as soon as they reach the alluvial 



. The Rio Grande itself in one section of 15 miles 



no fewer than 75 cubic feet per second by seepage. 



report records the existence, by actual count, of 3234 



s capable of irrigating from 20,000 to 25,000 acres. 



Paper No. 254 is of a similar character, treating of the 



"underground waters of north central Indiana (S. R. Capps 



-and R. B. Dole). The area covered is one of 761 1 square 



'miles, comprising nineteen counties. About two-thirds of 



■'; covered with drift to a depth of more than 100 feet. 



Surface Water Supply of the United .State«, Paper* 240, 353, 254, 25s 

 262 and 264. (Washington : Government Printing Office, 1910). 



This drift furnishes the water to by far the greater number 

 of wells within its region, and there are few places where 

 sufficient water for domestic needs cannot be obtained at 

 moderate depths. For public supplies and manufacturing 

 purposes, however, the source is inadequate. The report 

 gives detailed particulars relating to the wells of the 

 different localities, together with a comprehensive survey 

 of the geological conditions. There is also included a 

 section on the chemical character of the water and the 

 means to be adopted to render ii suit- 



able for domestic and industrial uses. 



Paper No. 253 is on the water powers 

 j of the Cascade Range ; part i., southern 

 Washington (Jno. C. Stevens). The 

 Cascade Range runs through the States 

 of Washington and Oregon with a 

 general summit elevation of 6000 to 

 8000 feet. The higher peaks include 

 Mount Shasta (14,380 feet). Mount 

 Ranier (14,363 feet), and five or six 

 others above 10,000 feet. The range is 

 characterised by steep slopes and its 

 streams by rapid flow. Add to this 

 that there is an abundant and fairly 

 uniform supply of water, fed during the 

 summer by the snow banks and 

 glaciers of the upper regions, and it 

 will be seen that the district presents 

 many interesting features from a hydro- 

 graphical point of view, and is a very 

 favourable locality for the development 

 of water power. The area dealt with 

 in the report comprises the drainage basins of the 

 Klickitat, White Salmon, Little White Salmon, Lewis, 

 and South Rivers flowing through the southern portion of 

 the district and situated in Washington. Of these streams, 

 the Klickitat is the most important, having a range of 

 elevation of 3255 feet through the course of 73 miles 

 surveyed, and being capable of developing some 150,000 

 horse-power under conditions of average minimum dis- 

 charge. Altogether the potential horse-power of the dis- 

 trict aggregates some 425,000. 



The last report to be noticed is that, perhaps, which 

 presents most features of interest to the general reader, as 

 apart from the specialist. The paper on underground 



Fig. 2. — Artesian Well on the Navin Ranch, San I.uis \ alli-y, t'olorailo. 



waters for farm use (Myron L. Fuller) is a particularly 

 valuable little manual affording a considerable fund of 

 information within small compass on matters of vital 

 importance to the community at large, and especially to 

 the pioneer agriculturist — information which is very often 

 regrettably outside the range of his ken. To commence 

 with, there is a brief, general, and lucid account of the 

 manner in which water occurs in the various geological 

 strata, illustrated by some excellent photographs, with a 

 statement of tl>e relative safety of the different materials. 

 The common sources of water supply are then discussed. 



NO. 2165, VOL. 86] 



