RECLAIMING THE DESERT 177 



benefit to the people of the United States, under 

 these conditions, which are the fruits of our Federal 

 reclamation experiment." 



IV 



The recreational opportunities of such a system 

 in semi-arid lands are beyond computation. During 

 its development has come the motor and the motor 

 road. Many of these reservoirs are the principal 

 fishing, camping and bathing opportunities of their 

 respective regions, and they will more and more im- 

 portantly serve the West in this way as population 

 increases and roads multiply. They share with Na- 

 tional Parks and National Forests the function of 

 travel objectives to millions of tourists awheel. 



All these reservoirs are remarkable spectacles, 

 and some have rare beauty. 



Reaching back often for miles up the winding 

 erosional valleys of hills and mountains, a shining 

 octopus, or filling miles of bald canyon with still deep 

 mile- wide river, or painting blue some shallow green- 

 bordered hollow in a vast level of sage-dotted yellow 

 sand, a reservoir of this size and character valiantly 

 asserts man-power in defiance of nature. The very 

 discordance with natural surroundings adds to its 

 declarations of human might. The roaring waters 

 of its dams, and the immense system below of sluices 

 and ditches outlining miles of desert-bordered vege- 

 tation triumphantly shouts man's conquest of the 

 unconquerable. 



