6 



THE SALTON SEA. 



that the amount of evaporation from the surface of the water at Aden, on the Indian Ocean, 

 was about 8 feet per annum. At the rate of 8 feet yearly, the 83 feet of water now covering 

 the Desert, and known as the Salton Sea, will require ten and a half years for its complete 



Mr. H. T. Cory, the engineer who had charge of rediverting the Colorado River to 

 the Gulf of California in 1906, states 1 that if there is no further inflow of the Colorado 

 River to the Salton Basin, the sea will practically dry up by evaporation in about eighteen 

 years, and that the actual evaporation from the Salton Sea from February 1907 to July 

 1912 has been almost exactly at the rate of 5 feet per annum. 



From measurements of the evaporation from a tank at Calexico by Mr. Peck, of the 

 California Development Company, the annual evaporation was shown to be about 6.73 

 feet, as will be seen by the following tabular report: 



Table 1. — Evaporation from a water surface at Calexico. 



COLORADO DESERT. 



The drying up of Lake Cahuilla left a broad region at the head of the Gulf; a depressed 

 area below the sea-level, a trackless waste of nearly level land extending, including the 

 Delta, for some 200 miles northwesterly beyond the present limits of tide-water in latitude 

 31° 30' N., approximately 80 miles south of the mouth of the Gila River at Yuma on the 

 Colorado. The limits of this desiccated area are approximately marked indelibly on 

 the ground by the shore-lines and beaches of Lake Cahuilla, extending on both sides of 

 the valley from near Yuma to Indio and beyond. 



The name "Colorado Desert" was given to this region by the writer in 1853. This 

 was before the State of Colorado received its name. It was deemed most appropriate to 

 connect the name of the Colorado River with the region, inasmuch as the desert owes its 

 origin to the river by the deposition of alluvions and the displacement of the sea-water. 



A tendency is shown by some writers to extend the area known as the Colorado Desert 

 so as to include the arid regions north of it, especially the mountainous region along the 

 Colorado and the Mohave, partly known to-day as the "Mohave Desert." This was not 

 the intention or wish of the author of the name. It was intended to apply it strictly to 

 the typical desert area of the lacustrine clays and alluvial deposits of the Colorado where 

 extreme characteristic desert conditions prevail, such as arid, treeless plains, old lake-beds, 

 and sand-hills — such conditions as are found in the Sahara of Africa and in the delta regions 

 of the Nile. The appellation may properly be confined to the regions reached by the 

 deposition of the silt of the Colorado, whether in the form of deltas or at the bottom of 

 ancient lakes. I should also include the bordering detrital slopes from the contiguous 

 mountains. So restricted, the area is practically coterminous with the ancient beach- 

 lines and terraces of the lakes which occupied the valley. 



Its area is estimated at not less than 2,100 square miles; its breadth east and west 

 opposite Carrizo Creek about 33 miles. Its height above tide ranges from 135 feet above 



1 Proceedings of American Society of Civil Engineers, November 1912. 



