CHAPTER III. 



CLIMATIC AND ECONOMIC NOTES. 



The climate is extremely dry, and this fact is in itself sufficient to 

 explain the absence of a luxuriant vegetation. There is no doubt that 

 with irrigation some localities, as, for instance, small strips along the 

 river bottoms, could be improved and made useful for agricultural pur- 

 poses, but the vegetation-bearing area would be small, indeed, in propor- 

 tion to the vast mass of country that lies between the White and Yampa 

 rivers. As by any statement in regard to percentage of agricultural 

 land grave errors would be unavoidable, unless this subject was made 

 the point of a special and thorough investigation, we will abstain from 

 giving positive figures relating to the proportion of good and bad land. 

 We will venture to say, however, that the encouragement held out to a 

 limited number of settlers is greater on the Yampa than on the White 

 Eiver, as there are a number of small parks in which there are consid- 

 erable areas of more than usually good bottomland. Excepting Simp- 

 son's or Agency Park, which contains a comparatively large area of good 

 land, only in few cases and but for short distances does the alluvial 

 bottom of the White River attain a width of even a mile. The places 

 in which the bottom along the White Eiver opens to the width of about 

 a mile are not numerous, as they occur only in three places in a dis- 

 tance of 80 miles westward from the White Eiver agency. For the 

 greater part the river flows either in caQon or in narrow defiles, crowded 

 by broken terraces and benches, with an occasional narrow patch that 

 might be cultivated by means of irrigation. 



From the junction of Elkhead Creek with the Yampa Eiver down to 

 the junction of Williams Fork the conditions for pasturing are tolera- 

 bly good, and besides the actual bottom area, several thousands of 

 acres — now terrace land — might be made useful through irrigation. The 

 Yampa flows from Williams Fork junction, as before stated, in a semi- 

 canon, exhibiting only here and there a few acres of ground that might 

 be made useful. This is followed by a comparatively small but rich 

 bottom between Sage Plateau and Yampa Peak. In extent this bottom 

 or valley is G miles long, and in its upper portion nearly a mile in width. 

 In the lo^ er portion of the valley, nearer Yampa Peak, its width lessens 

 to f and even to ^ of a mile. Abruptly rising bluffs with deep cut 

 gulches form its northern margin, while the generally gradual rising but 

 very undulating benches of axiat basin present also occasional but in- 

 ferior bluffs on the south side of this little valley. 



Between Yampa Peak and Junction Mountain the terraces of West- 

 axial Basin approach the river very closely, and, as a consequence, the 

 bottom area is small. If water could be conveyed by means of ditches 

 around Yampa Peak in the rear of West-axial Basin, a comparatively 

 large area could be subjected to cultivation, but hundreds of terraces 

 and benches, broken by large and small ravines, as well as by deep 

 mountain gulches, that descend from Yampa Peak, would make the 

 task a difficult one. 



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