LOWER COLORADO RIVER 

 SHOWING IRRIGABLE LANDS 



UNITED STATES a MEXICO. 



r r 

 r o R N I A 



The Great New Lake Rising in the Salton Sink 



The Colorado River is now flowing through the Imperial Canal into the Alamo River. Nine-tenths 

 of the water leaves the Alamo River, however, at a point a few miles south of Sharp's Heading 

 and rushes into the New River, and thence down into Salton Sink. Before this break occurred 

 the Alamo and New Rivers were barely perceptible channels, filled with sand and sediment, 

 and only occasionally carrying water. As the Salton Sink is nearly 300 feet below sea-level, 

 the descending torrent has dug deep channels in the Alamo and New Rivers. These channels- 

 are preceded by huge cataracts, which are rapidly eating their way back and leaving the towns 

 and canals without water. On November 4, 1906, a dam over 500 feet long was completed below 

 Pilot Knob, which turned the river back into its old channel to the Gulf of California, but sev- 

 eral weeks later the water worked its way around the dam, and the entire river is once more 

 rushing down to the Salton Sink. The cataract in the New River is now rapidly approaching^ 

 the Alamo, and if it once joins the Alamo, the Imperial Valley farms will be left high and dry 

 until they are inundated by the rising Salton Lake 



