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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1003 



face is a circumstance whicli when within the 

 frontiers of civilization is too rare not to at- 

 tract wide attention, much intensified by a 

 consequent deflection of a trunk line of rail- 

 way, the loss of an industry of corporation 

 magnitude and the threatening of areas of 

 cultivation. But in spite of vast antagonism, 

 as measured by money and effort, this is 

 what happened when the waters of the Colo- 

 rado, first as a tiny stream, but at last as a 

 torrent, entered the Salton Sink through the 

 New Eiver during the few years following 1904. 

 If the lack of foresight which led to this is to 

 be deprecated, it is of no meager congratula- 

 tion that, precisely as the opportunity was 

 afforded, the Desert Laboratory of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington was organized and 

 disposed toward the study of the progress of 

 events by scientific methods. This progress is 

 not completed, nor will be for many years, but 

 the careful planning and continuity of study 

 till the present moment, as witnessed by the 

 volume before us, furnish a sure foundation, 

 under the permanency of a stable organization 

 such as the Carnegie Institution, for a future 

 following of events, so that we may confidently 

 hope at the end to have a more complete and 

 accurate account of the complex interplay of 

 events projected over larger places and times 

 than has yet been produced by science. The 

 case illustrates the necessity of the times. 

 Mutual cooperation of students in diverse fields 

 is becoming more and more imperative, if a 

 satisfying solution of any problem is to be 

 had. For a skilful observation of the Salton 

 Sink a geographer, two geologists, several 

 chemists and various kinds of botanists, prob- 

 ably a working minimum, have been needed. 



The work under review may be said to have 

 been begun by the late Professor William 

 Phipps Blake, who, as geologist to the official 

 TJ. S. Eailway Survey which in 1853 had the 

 task of exploring the southern portion of the 

 Sierra Nevada, first comprehended the nature 

 of the Salton basin. An account of the region 

 written by Professor Blake only two years be- 

 fore his death, fittingly introduces the reader 

 to the volume. A strong note of human in- 

 terest is found in a photograph of Professor 



Blake standing on the travertine formation 

 53 years after the date of his original discovery 

 of it. There is a historic justice in the fact 

 that Professor Blake was permitted to see seri- 

 ous work begun in this desert, for his vast 

 and intimate experience in the southwestern 

 deserts had been but for his death of great 

 value to it. 



The dynamic geography of the region is pre- 

 sented by Mr. Godfrey Sykes, who bases his 

 conclusions on the records of the early ex- 

 plorers, tradition and evidence observed ad hoc. 

 The Salton Sink represents the northern ex- 

 tremity of the Gulf of California which has 

 been cut oS by the formation of a huge nat- 

 ural dam, the ridge of which extends from the 

 Algodones Sandhills to Cerro Prieto. If this 

 is true the major beach line identical with that 

 of the present gulf should be, in view of tidal 

 action, 20 to 30 feet higher than sea-level, and 

 in view of prevailing winds, higher on the 

 northeastern shore than on the opposite, and 

 this Mr. Sykes finds to obtain. Eocque's map 

 (1762) indicates that previous to 1762 or 

 thereabout, the Colorado and Gila jointly 

 flowed into an extensive lake, and Indian tra- 

 dition comports with this. Since 1890 water 

 from the Colorado has at various times found 

 its way into the sink, so that the flooding of 

 recent years was an event following the re- 

 opening of a nearly healed wound. When the 

 flood was dammed, the waters found their way 

 chiefly into Hardy's Colorado, and incidentally 

 the Pattie Basin is receiving a part of the sur- 

 charge. 



A different view is taken by Mr. E. E. Free, 

 who, in a sketch of the geology and soils, re- 

 gards the evidence that the basin was nerer 

 occupied by the sea, any further north at any 

 rate than Carrizo Creek. The absence of 

 marine shells, and presence of millions of 

 fresh-water shells, the occurrence of travertine, 

 the amount of salt deposited and the condition 

 at the present time of the major beach aU 

 speak for a genetic precursor of the present 

 waters in a fresh water lake, happily called 

 Blake Sea, which has disappeared in com- 

 paratively modern times by evaporation. The 

 formation of the dam which excludes the 



