7fi Biology in America 



the lure of the forest and its cold fresh streams within their 

 depths. 



Ilerc has the Desert Lahoratory of the Carnegie Institution 

 found its home in a long, low stone building on the summit of 

 Tumamoc Hill, with an adjoining greenhouse, and a small 

 photo-chemical laboratory nearl)y. Tlic efforts of the Depart- 

 ment have been devoted to a study of deserf^ conditions and 

 their effect upon the plant life of the region. In conjunction 

 with a small branch laboratory at Carmel, near Monterey, 

 California, extensive studies have been carried on upon the 

 influence of climate on the form of plants. Various species 

 of plants have been transplanted from their cool, moist home 

 in the Santa Catalina Mountains to the experimental gardens 

 at Tucson, and vice versa, and interchanged between the 

 Arizona Desert and the cool, dani]) California Coast Avith 

 consequent marked changes in their form. In order to see 

 how "the other half" of the plant world lives, expeditions 

 have been sent to the Sahara Desert, and the tropical forests 

 of Jamaica. Studies on the revegetation of the Salton Sea 

 area have been carried on for several years. This is a brackish 

 water lake in southern California, originally over 400 square 

 miles in extent, which was formed in 1905 by the overflow 

 of the Colorado River through an irrigation canal leading to 

 the Imperial Valley. In the arid climate of southern Cali- 

 fornia this lake has fallen to about one-half its original depth 

 of 84 feet, leaving wide stretches of lake bottom exposed, 

 where new vegetation may arise. From such studies much 

 can be learned as to the development of plant life in our arid 

 southwest. 



At one time Great Salt Lake extended over a much wider 

 area than now, reaching an extent of nearly 20,000 square 

 miles, and a depth of 1,000 feet, as can be determined by the 

 old shore lines on the mountain slopes in northwestern IJtah. 

 To this greater Great Salt Lake the name of Lake Bonneville 

 has been given, from the doughty captain, whose wanderings 

 in the far west have been so picturesquely portrayed by 

 Irving in his "Captain Bonneville." To the southwest of 

 Lake Bonneville stretched the wide expanse of Lake Lahontan, 

 named from the explorer La Hontan. In the heyday of their 

 existence, following the retreat of the ice of the Glacial period, 

 these lakes received a copious supply, but Nature early put 

 into effect some "bone dry laws" in this region, and now the 

 site of Lake Lahontan is an arid waste clothed in sage brush 

 and cactus and inhabited by the coyote, prairie dog, burrow- 

 ing owl, rattlesnake and horned toad, with here and there a 



'The term "desert" as applied to this region is a misnomer; arid 

 tableland or steppe would be better. 



