GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 233 



I did not expect to find here. But since that time I have learned some 

 facts which go to show that there are some valleys and localities even 

 north of this, especially on the west side of the range, where the climate 

 is comparatively mild, and where not only the hardier cereals, bat corn 

 can be raised, and will produce a moderately good crop. 



I do not know what the elevation of this valley is, but am inclined to 

 believe that it is lower than that of the Sweetwater. Major Baldwin 

 thinks that it will not average more than five thousand feet above the 

 level of the sea. 



I believe the greater part of this district is embraced in an Indian 

 reservation; but, as I have heretofore remarked, this only makes a 

 knowledge of its agricultural capacity the more important. 



THE WESTERN DIVISION. 



A full consideration of the territory on the western slope of the great 

 divide, lying opposite to that in the eastern division, would include, not 

 only the Salt Lake basin, but also the vast district drained by the Rio 

 Colorado of the West and its numerous tributaries. But this I am una- 

 ble to do, especially in regard to the latter ; for while my observations 

 and information extended over the greater part of the Great Salt Lake 

 basin, they were limited, in the Rio Colorado district, to a part of the 

 Green River country, the valley of the Rio Virgin, and the head- waters 

 of the San Juan and Flax Rivers. The last two I have embraced in my 

 report on New Mexico, and the valley of the Rio Virgin I will include 

 in a description of the Salt Lake district, leaving only the Green River 

 section to be described separately. This, I am aware, breaks in upon 

 my plan of making each separate water system a district, but as 1 am 

 unable to carry it out in this case, I thought it best to throw the differ- 

 ent parts of the Territories together as much as possible consistent with 

 the general plan. 



This division is a part of the great inter-alpine trough lying between 

 the Rocky Mountain and Sierra Nevada ranges, which terminates north 

 in the plains of the Columbia, and is lost, in the south in the broad 

 plateaus of Arizona and Mexico. Its situation, so far from the imme- 

 diate Pacific slope and Mississippi Valley, with immense rugged ranges 

 of mountains on each side, and yet on the line of travel between the 

 Atlantic and Pacific shores, renders a knowledge of its agricultural 

 capacity of great importance. And a more complete investigation on 

 this point by the Government would not be money spent in vain. 



The lowest level of the area under consideration is reached in the Salt 

 Lake Valley, which is about four thousand three hundred feet above the 

 sea, while various arable points in each district are found as high as 

 seven thousand feet. 



THE GREEN RIVER DISTRICT. 



I regret my inability to describe this district in full, not only because 

 without it my work is incomplete, but more particularly because I think 

 there is here a large body of irrigable laud, which is unoccupied. It is 

 probable that the portion of the area, drained by Green River and its 

 tributaries, which lies within Wyoming Territory, amounts to some fif- 

 teen thousand or sixteen thousand square miles. The southeastern 

 part consists principally of broad barren sage plains, with but little 

 water, and is, as a general thing, of but little value, unless it can be re- 

 deemed by means of artesian wells. The southern part is composed 



