804 WALLACE W. ATWOOD 
GLACIATION AND IRRIGATION 
The present streams from the Uinta Mountains, if under control, 
would furnish enough water to irrigate hundreds of square miles in 
the lower country. If the glacial lakes were connected directly with 
the streams and used as reservoirs, the irrigating capacity of the 
streams would be immensely increased. Usually a relatively inexpen- 
sive dam would control the waters of these natural reservoirs. In 
most cases the lake waters could be easily increased a few feet in 
depth, and often spread over many additional acres of land. In a 
few cases simple efforts have been made to control the waters in such 
lakes. China Lake, in the east fork of Smith’s Fork, now serves as a 
reservoir. At the south end of Lake Washington in the Provo Basin 
a dam was built which, if effective, would have raised the waters in 
the lake a few feet and reserved a large supply of water for the latter 
part of the growing season. The dam is now broken, and the outlet 
of the lake is being gradually lowered by the outflowing waters. In 
many cases outlets of former glacial lakes could be closed and new 
reservoirs made. Often the younger terminal moraines in the can- 
yons have but narrow notches cut through them. If these post-. 
glacial notches were closed, there would be extensive reservoirs in 
the lower portions of the canyons. 
Most of the irrigable land south of the mountains is at present 
owned by the Ute Indians. The Indians carry on some agricultural 
work, but only near the streams, where the land is very easily watered. 
The country north of the range is inhabited by ranchmen, who find 
it more and more necessary each year to raise fodder for their stock. 
The land is being rapidly taken up and fenced off for private ranges. 
In this country irrigation is practiced somewhat extensively, and yet 
little or nothing has been done to control the waters in the basin 
region or to develop new reservoirs lower down in the canyons. 
Each year the streams are lowering the outlets of the lakes and both 
widening and deepening the cuts through the moraines in the canyons, 
and therefore the amount of work necessary to get control of the 
water supply in the range steadily increases. 
