142 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



poem, "Mandalay," which exploits 

 some of the charms of the capital of 

 Upper Burma, he speaks of 



" Elephants a-pilin' teak, 

 In the sludgy, squdgy creek. ' 



In a story, ' ' Moti Guj , " he tells how 

 an elephant of that name was ordered 

 to work for a period of several days, 

 during which time the mahout was to be 

 away. Before leaving, the driver tapped 

 the big elephant's foot a number of 

 times agreeing with the specified num- 

 ber of days which the beast was to work 

 while he was gone. True to these in- 

 structions, Moti Guj worked peaceably 

 and with ardor until the set time was 

 up. At the expiration of the driver's 

 leave the elephant refused to work, and 

 threats, force, and cajolery were un- 



availing to compel him to keep at his 

 tasks until the recalcitrant mahout should 

 return. When mahout and elephant 

 were at last reunited, however, all 

 traces of stubbornness and bad temper 

 disappeared from Moti Guj , and he re- 

 sumed his tasks with an evident willing- 

 ness. There are many other passages 

 where Kipling renders tribute to the 

 sagacity of the elephant, for whose 

 intelligence the novelist has respect. 



Through the courtesy of Mr. R. C. 

 Wroughton, Officiating Inspector Gen- 

 eral of Forests to the Government of 

 India, FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION has 

 obtained permission to reproduce the 

 photographs used to illustrate this 

 article. They show just how the lum- 

 ber is handled and give a definite idea 

 of how useful the giant beasts are. 



POSSIBLE IRRIGATION PROJECTS, 



NOTES FROM THE RECLAMATION SUR- 

 VEY BEING CARRIED ON BY THE 

 UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



SINCE the passage of the National 

 Irrigation Act of June, 1902, a com- 

 prehensive survey of the arid regions of 

 the West has been carried on by the 

 United States Geological Survey, with a 

 view of determining the most feasible 

 projects for development. It has been 

 the intention of the officials in charge 

 from the very first to examine with the 

 greatest care those streams which seem 

 to afford the greatest natural advantages 

 for the storage of large bodies of water. 

 Some of the more interesting work car- 

 ried on during the past season is de- 

 scribed in the following notes from the 

 work of the Geological Survey: 



Water for Central Washington. 



An examination has recently been 

 made, by F. C. Calkins, of the Hydro- 

 graphic Branch of the United States 

 Geological Survey, of the possibilities 

 of increasing the water supply of por- 

 tions of central Washington. Kittitas 

 Valley is one of the areas in which irri- 



gation is already extensively practiced 

 by water drawn from the Yakima River 

 and its tributaries. Plans have matured 

 for the construction of ditches from the 

 Upper Yakima which will materially 

 extend the irrigated area to the east and 

 southeast in the near future. 



Attention was also given to a strip of 

 desert land just east of the Columbia 

 River, now used as a stock ranch, and 

 also to a portion of the great wheat- 

 growing region adjoining it on the north 

 and east which extends northward into 

 the Big Bend of the Columbia and east- 

 ward beyond the Idaho boundary. As 

 the district has an arid climate, and its 

 eastern portion is practically without 

 surface streams, the object of the exam- 

 ination was to determine the practica- 

 bility of sinking deep wells as a means 

 of obtaining water, and especially to 

 determine whether artesian flows could 

 be found. Irrigation from the Colum- 

 bia, except to a limited extent on its 

 lowest terraces, appears to be impracti- 



