350 PAPAGUERIA 



The distribution of water in Papagueria is correlated with the 

 configuration of the surface. As the vapor-charged air drifts up 

 the long slope to the base of the Sierra and up the steeper slope 

 toward the crest, a part of the vapor distills as dew or falls as 

 rain, while the lesser ranges lying athwart the long slope extract 

 a part of the boon ; so there are storm-fed streams in all of the 

 higher mountains, rushing torrents in the lofty Sierra, slender 

 streams in the lower ranges, and a part of the flood soaks into 

 the thirsty soil to form ground water, which may reappear as 

 springs toward the mountain bases or in the narrow upland val- 

 leys. During the midsummer storms, and still more during those 

 of midwinter, the mountain-born floods stretch far into the 

 plains, cutting channels broad and deep as those of the Connect- 

 icut, Susquehanna, and Savannah, which for eight or ten or 

 eleven months of the year are naught but wastes of burning- 

 sand. The typical drainage system of Papagueria during the 

 wet season is a long series of nearly parallel mountain torrents 

 flowing down the side of the range in deep gorges, joining in part 

 in the foothills, and finally uniting in the adjacent plain as vast 

 sheetfloocls, miles in width and inches in depth, flowing swiftly 

 and boldly adown or athwart the broad valleys toward the sea, 

 to finally gather in great rivers ; yet throughout the whole dis- 

 trict these broad streams are quickly swallowed by the sands or 

 consumed by the blistering air, and from the Gila to the Yaki, 

 500 miles away, no river of Papagueria has reached the sea dur- 

 ing the memory of men. As the dry season approaches the rivers 

 are cut off in their lower reaches, mile by mile, and as they shrink 

 toward their sources the drainage systems contract and most 

 disappear, leaving a few slender streamlets in the deeper gorges 

 each heading in a spring or seepage basin and rippling feebly 

 over the sands a few rods or miles before fading in the sun ; and 

 so delicate is the adjustment of climate and earth-water that the 

 streams stretch by night and shrink by day, sometimes for miles. 

 A few streams heading in the high Sierra indeed flow for scores 

 of miles ; but these have mainly been taken by other peoples 

 and hardly appertain to Papagueria. There are other streams 

 which, during the dry season, are practically subterranean, and 

 only to be found in storm-cut tinajas or reached by digging. And 

 all the way from the high Sierra toward the gulf, over the lessen- 

 ing mountains and toward the broadening plains, earth-water on 

 the surface or at depths grows scantier and scantier until it is 

 gone. 



