June 28, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



503 



ammunition and provisions. Emin Pacha is an Egyptian officer, 

 and Stanley travels as well for the Egyptian Government (which is 

 almost an English government) as for the English Relief Com- 

 mittee, the president and secretary of which are Mackinnon and 

 Mackenzie, who are also directors of the English East African 

 Company. This fact is very significant. 



Undoubtedly Stanley's silence regarding his interview with Emin 

 Pacha is due to the fact that this interview was of a political char- 

 acter, and that its subject is not yet to be made public. It is very 

 remarkable that Stanley did not carry a single line from Emin. 

 His object was to save Emin's province for Egypt, that is to gain 

 it for England, and to forestall any other power which might con- 

 template occupying that territory. We believe that Stanley has 

 succeeded in doing so. Emin continues to consider himself an 

 Egyptian officer. As the Sudan continues to be closed, his next 

 object will be to open communication with the east coast through 

 English territory, and thus his further course becomes self-evident. 

 Stanley states in his letter that he does not contemplate returning 

 on the Ivongo route. Mr. Stokes, agent of the missions at the Victo- 

 ria Nyanza, informed Dr. Meyer that he had long ago sent hundreds 

 of loads of goods and provisions for Stanley to Kavirondo, on the 

 east side of the Victoria Nyanza. The second English relief ex- 

 pedition, which started from Mombas in November of last year 

 through English territory, and which was greatly helped by the dis- 

 coveries of Count Teleki, who returned at that time to Mombas 

 from the interior, will probably have advanced sufficiently far to 

 help Stanley in reaching the coast and protecting the expedition 

 from any attacks of the Wagonda. The latest rumors of Stanley's 

 march eastward are quite probable, and presumably he will reach 

 the coast at Mombas. But it is improbable that. Emin Pacha will 

 accompany him. He will stay at- his post for Egypt — and for 

 England. 



THE LAKES OF THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY. 



The rapid contraction by evaporation of the three lakes of the 

 upper San Joaquin valley, the consequent concentration of their 

 waters into alkaline lyes too strong for animal life, and the nature 

 of the soils laid bare on their margins, have formed the subjects of 

 investigation and discussion in several reports of the Agricultural 

 Experiment Station of the University of California, especially in 

 connection with the reclamation and cultivation of alkali soils. It 

 is a matter of regret that it has not been possible to pursue the 

 subject by personal visits as systematically as its practical impor- 

 tance and theoretical interest might have warranted ; for we are 

 here in presence of a group of phenomena that have been repeated 

 many times in past geological epochs, and for the study of which, 

 in their physical, chemical, and biological aspects, opportunity is 

 not often afforded. Hence, while the information and data given in a 

 bulletin issued by the experiment station June 15, are of necessity 

 incomplete and fragmentary, they are of interest as affording an 

 insight into processes regarding which but little is thus far on rec- 

 ord. 



A personal examination of Kern Lake, and of the region lying 

 between it and Buena Vista Lake, as well as of the Mussel Slough 

 country, made under the auspices of the United States census in 

 March, 1S80, satisfied Professor E. W. Hilgard that in none of 

 these rich agricultural sections could the slightest increase of alkali 

 be safely risked ; and analyses subsequently made of the waters of 

 both Kern and Tulare Lakes prove that a very few years' use of 

 the water then filling either of these reservoirs would be promptly 

 fatal to the productiveness of the lands irrigated. As regards Kern 

 Lake, this was obvious enough from a casual examination and 

 tasting of the water. Having been shut off from the natural influx 

 of Kern River for a number of years, it has been rapidly evapo- 

 rating and receding from its former shores, so that at the time of 

 Professor Hilgard's visit a difference in level of over four feet had 

 been produced in fifteen months, leaving high and dry a boat wharf 

 built at that distance of time. About eighteen months before, all 

 the fish and turtles in the lake had suddenly died, creating a pesti- 

 lential atmosphere by their decay ; and even the mussels were 

 mostly dead, a few maintaining a feeble existence. A strong alka- 

 line taste and soapy feeling of the water fully justified their choice 

 of evils. The tule marsh, laid dry by the recession of the lake, was 



thickly crusted with alkali ; and the tules were dead, except where 

 still moistened by the water of the lake, showing that the latter 

 was not yet too strong for such hardy vegetable growth, albeit fatal 

 to animal life. 



Buena Vista Lake was stated to be in a similar condition, but not 

 yet quite so far advanced in evaporation, and still maintaining some 

 animal life in its waters, having lost its connection with the river 

 more recently. Tulare Lake is well known to be full of fish, and, 

 as it annually receives the overflow of Kern and the regular inflow 

 of King's River, its evaporation and recession have been much 

 slower ; yet its water's edge is now distant several miles from the 

 former shore-line, and, as the water of the river is more and more 

 absorbed by irrigation, it will doubtless continue to recede until a 

 point is reached at which the regular seepage from the irrigated 

 lands will balance the evaporation. 



A comparison of an analysis in 188S with those made in 1880 

 shows that the solid contents of the water of Lake Tulare had in- 

 'creased very nearly two and a half times in eight years, and that 

 its concentration approximated closely to that of Kern Lake in 

 1880. Yet it appears that an abundance of fish survived, at least 

 of certain kinds, although the mussels had already succumbed. 



Having been informed in November, 1888, that " the fish in Tu- 

 lare Lake were dying by shoals," Mr. J. G. Woodbury of the State 

 Fish Commission visited the north-eastern part of the lake, near 

 the mouth of Cross Creek, during the first week in February. 



On inquiry about the reported dying of the fish, the fishermen 

 said that it occurred last summer and autumn, and that it was 

 mostly catfish, " greasers," and some of the so-called trout, also 

 some carp, but very few perch. Now, it is the perch that is so 

 much valued by the fishermen ; in fact, the perch is what they fish 

 for, as the catfish do not sell so well, and the greasers are of no 

 account. The " trout," they say, are very soft, and do not keep 

 well, also are very insipid. 



The perch are certainly very fine fish, large, bright, and clean- 

 looking ; they are also very good eating, as Mr. Woodbury had oc- 

 casion to verify. These perch have enormous mouths, and in that 

 of every one in the pound can be seen a " shiner " (or " slick," as 

 they call the fish) with the tail sticking out of the great mouth, be- 

 ing drawn farther in as the process of digestion proceeds. One 

 perch which he took along to have cooked, he took by the gills, 

 and, looking down his big mouth, saw the tail of a fish, which he 

 readily got hold of with his fingers and pulled out. It was six 

 inches long, and only had its head partly digested. The fishermen 

 say that all these perch, when caught, have fish in their mouths, in 

 proof of which he pulled out one at random with a dip-net, and 

 showed the perch with a shiner's tail still out of the mouth. 



The fishermen state that no catfish are now caught, while two 

 and three years ago they would get a wagon-load at each haul ; 

 also that trout are now seldom caught, although they used to be 

 very abundant. The men expressed no opinion as to the cause of 

 the death of the fish, but stated that the catfish especially were 

 drifted upon the shore, dead, by thousands. Catfish, however, are 

 found by millions at present in the creeks and sloughs that run into 

 the lake. 



All the shore of the lake for miles was strewn with mussel or 

 clam shells. The surface of the ground was white with them, and 

 the wheels of the carriage crushed through them, as though more 

 than half the substance of the ground was actually made up of 

 shells. These shells extend here as thickly as on top, down to 

 the depth of a hundred feet. Not a live clam can be found in the 

 lake now. Ten years ago there were large numbers of live mus- 

 sels in Tulare Lake, and the hogs used to live on them. They 

 would wade out into the lake, and plunge their heads under water, 

 get hold of a mussel, and hold their noses up in the air and chew 

 it up. 



For the whole distance of twenty miles from Tulare City the 

 country is of remarkable fertility, almost level ; and. where put into 

 wheat, the growth was strong even to within two miles of the shore 

 of the lake. The lake must have been at some time a good deal lower 

 than it is now, for near the mouth of Cross Creek there are many 

 stumps which were under water only last year, and among which 

 the fishermen used to get their nets entangled. These stumps are 

 now just at the water's edge. 



