DEISTER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 



187 



wizard that has transformed the scene here is water. This water 

 may first fall in the form of snow on the high peaks of the Rocky 

 Mountains, but earlj'- in June the warm rays of the sun reach the 

 snowbanks and convert the snow into water, a part of which plunges 

 roaring down the steep sides of the mountain to swell the torrents 

 in the streams below, and another part finds lodgment in the crevices 

 and open pores of the rocks and is kept stored there until the surface 

 water has almost disappeared. Then the rocks gradually give up 

 their stores, and this midsummer supply appears just when it is 

 most urgently needed by the growing crops. But how can this 

 water be gathered and spread out on the thirsty land; and if so 

 spread out, will it be sufficient, or if sufficient in midsummer, will 

 it be sufficient in September, when the driest part of the season is 

 reached? In the semiarid regions of the West these questions are 

 of the utmost importance, and several bureaus of the Government 

 have been for years making exhaustive studies of all the streams to 

 determine how much water they carry and in constructing engi- 

 neering works by which the water in them may be distributed over 

 the land. The work of measuring the quantitv of water in the 

 streams has been taken up by the United States Geological Survey, 

 because water may truly be considered a mineral, and it. is the duty 

 of the Geological Survey to take account of all the mineral resources 

 of the country. Most people of the West are familiar with this 

 work, but those who come from the East are perhaps unaware that 

 reports concerning the water supply of many regions or streams 

 may be obtained free on application to the Director of the United 

 States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. The method by which 

 the quantity of water flowing in a stream is determined is described 

 below by Eobert Follansbee.^® 



As the traveler goes westward he sees that the Book Cliffs recede 

 farther and farther from the river, and about 10 miles west of Grand 



^Without a thorough knowledge of 

 the avaihible water supply irriga- 

 tion enterprises are not likely to be 

 successful. The work of the United 

 States Geological Survey in measuring 

 the flow of tlie larger streams is espe- 

 cially needed to insure the prosperity 

 of the West and has been developed to 

 meet the need. It was begun in 1S8S, 

 when a camp of instruction was estab- 

 lished on the Rio Grande in charge of 

 F. H. Newell, who later became the 

 Director of the United States Recla- 

 mation Service. Here were developed 

 the methods which laid the foundation 

 for the present work of recording the 



flow of streams. From this small be- 

 ginning the work was expanded until 

 now there are in the United States 

 more than 1,500 gaging stations at 

 which the flow of streams is measured. 

 Records of stream flow are not only 

 necessary in planning successful irri- 

 gation and water-power projects but 

 are being used by the Reclamation 

 Service in determining the inflow of 

 the big reservoirs it is building, by the 

 Weather Bureau in predicting flood 

 flow in the lower Colorado River at 

 Yuma, by the Forest Service in deter- 

 mining the available horsepower at un- 

 developed power sites in the national 



