TOWNSHIP DESCKIPTIONS. 35 



leys and swales separate long easterly and westerly combs and ridges. The 

 southeast corner of the tract is chiefly comprised in the valley of West Boulder 

 River, a depression 600 to 700 feet below the summits of the inclosing ridges, 

 here broad and open, but near the south line of the township contracting into a 

 canyon. 



Mining. — None. 



Soil. — Throughout the mountain areas the soil is thin and stony, and the surface 

 is littered with bowlders. In the foothill region in the northeast quarter of the 

 township the swales and creek bottoms have a deep, rich, loamy soil, while the 

 ridges generally are stony and strewn with great masses of bowlder drift. The 

 bottom lands in West Boulder River have a thin, loamy soil, resting on clear 

 gravel and boulder drift. 



Agrimdtural adaptability. — The swales and creek bottoms in the foothill 

 region and the bottom lands in West Boulder Valley are agricultural in charac- 

 ter and are occupied and in cultivation wherever irrigation is possible. The 

 mountain areas contain no agricultural lands. 



Grazing capacity. — All of the northeast quarter of the township that is not 

 susceptible of tillage and that does not bear forest is grazing land. Small tracts of 

 grass land also occur in the valley of the West Boulder and as scattered glades along 

 the creek bottoms throughout the mountain areas. In the aggregate the grazing 

 lands comprise 3,500 acres. 



Drainage conditions. — The run-off is abundant. Small pools and springs are 

 numerous at the heads of the canyons. Many of the high northern slopes hold banks 

 of snow throughout the j^-ear. Much of the run-off sinks and is lost in the steeply 

 upturned and deeply fissured limestone strata of the region, and in the vast morainic 

 accumulations in the larger canyons. Where conditions are favorable the streams 

 are utilized for irrigation purposes. 



Snow and rock slides. — Common and frequent at all seasons. Enormous masses 

 of overhang, mostly fissured and rapidly crumbling, occur all along the higher sum- 

 mits, while the talus slopes are loose and sliding on substrata of wet, clayey mud. 



Towns and settlements. — There are no towns. Settlers are living on the culti- 

 vated areas in the northeast quarter of the township and in the West Boulder 

 Valley up to the south line of the township. 



Forest conditions. — With the exception of the lower areas in the canyon of Davis 

 Creek, a tributary of the West Boulder entering along the south line^ of the town- 

 ship, the forest is composed of stands thinly stocked, in so far as relates to the mature 

 forest. Small, tracts of the slopes adjacent to the foothill region carry moderately 

 well-stocked stands of sapling red fir, which is the prevailing species in all the lower 

 areas of the northern portion of the township. The foothill region is sparsely 

 stocked with scattering stands of this species along the creek bottoms and on northern 



