WHITE.] MATERIAL RESOURCES WATER. 59 



riety of farm-products that may be grown there successfully, but trials 

 already made there show that wheat, barley, oats, rye, pease, beans, po- 

 tatoes, and many of the common garden vegetables may be cultivated 

 successfully. The tillable lands along the valley of Green River have 

 less elevation above the level of the sea than those of any other portion 

 of the district, and it is probable that maize, as well as some kinds of 

 fruit trees, might be grown there with success. The soil of the irrigable 

 lands is almost without exception very fertile, and needs only proper 

 irrigation and cultivation to make them very productive. 



Water. — A dweller in a well-watered country is hardly able to realize 

 the paramount value of the water that falls upon the land in copious 

 and timely showers, and that traverses every valley in the form of rivu- 

 lets and streams. It is the want of the copious supplies of water that bless 

 the eastern part of the national domain that renders so large a propor- 

 tion of the western part either a desert waste or untillable land. For 

 this reason water is classed among the material resources of the dis- 

 trict, and all its permanent streams and rivulets are especially noticed 

 in this report, although some of them are so small that they would be 

 deemed unworthy of notice in more favored regions. 



Except among the Danforth Hills and other hills in the eastern part of 

 the district, and also at the bases of Plateau and Midland Uplifts in the 

 western part, no springs are found, and they are not numerous in the 

 parts designated. Therefore supplies of water must be obtained prin- 

 cipally from the Green, Yampa, and White Rivers, and their very few 

 tributaries that contain perennial water, and which have already been 

 described in Chapter II. The water of these streams is sufficiently 

 pure and good, and the fall is almost everywhere so great in the Yampa 

 and White Rivers that abundant water-power may be obtained, as well 

 as an abundance of water for irrigating purposes. 



As a general indication of the amount of water carried by White and 

 Yampa Rivers, I here insert a record of the gauging of each. Yampa 

 River was gauged at a point four miles east of Yampa Mountain, and 

 White River six miles below White River Indian Agency. The method 

 adopted was to measure a line of 200 feet along the bank of the river, 

 and note the time taken by a float to run from the upper to the lower 

 end of the line ; then to measure the depth at certain jjoints opposite, 

 together with the width of the stream. 



Oauging of Yampa Biver, August 5, L877. 



Width from brink to brink 175 feet. 



Runnin gtime of float 1 minute 57 seconds. 



Depth at north, quarter of the distance across 2 feet. 



Depth at center 2 feet 5 inches. 



Depth at south, quarter of the distance across 2 feet 9 inches. 



The bottom has, at the place of measurement, quite a uniform curve 

 from brink to brink, so that a greater number of measurements of depth 

 were deemed unnecessary. 



Gauging of White River, August 11, 1877. 



Width from brink to brink 120 feet. 



Running time of float 31 seconds. 



Depth at south, one-eighth distance across 1 foot 9 inches. 



Depth at south, one-quarter distance across 1 foot" 



Depth at center , 1 foot 9 inches. 



Depth at north, one-quarter distance across 1 foot 10 inches. 



