246 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 



is probable that a ditch could be brought round from Chalk Creek, by 

 which a considerable area of the upper level might be rendered tillable.* 



Corn Creek, which is about five miles farther south, is flanked by a 

 moderately broad area of flat land, which can be irrigated to the full 

 extent of the supply of water. Cove Creek Valley, ten or twelve miles 

 farther on, furnishes but little farming land, but contains some good 

 grazing fields, and is already occupied, to a considerable extent, for 

 this purpose. Five or six miles south of this is another small stream 

 (probably Pine Creek,) where sufficient land for a few farms might be 

 irrigated. 



Passing over a divide of some nine or ten miles we reach Indian 

 Creek, a tributary of Beaver Eiver, which brings us into another basin. 

 Although there are two stage routes through this section, there seems 

 to be but little Inown respecting its water system ; in fact, the very 

 existence of Preuss Lake appears to be a matter of doubt, and future 

 investigation may show that this is but a part of Sevier Eiver Basin. 

 Considering it as a separate system, it consists of Bear River and its 

 tributaries, which rise in the western slope of the range of mountains 

 before mentioned. 



There is a considerable area of land on Beaver River that can be irri- 

 gated and cultivated, and the probability is that its breadth might be 

 increased by extending canals on the upper levels below the mountain 

 or ridge that crosses here. Passing over Beaver Mountain we reach 

 Yellow Creek, where there is a fertile belt about ten miles long and six 

 or seven miles wide, reaching from the Creek about two miles south 

 of Parawan. Here, and at Beaver River, are some settlements and 

 some land already under cultivation. Between Parawan and Cedar 

 City there are a few arable spots of small extent, which are already 

 partly occupied. Cedar City is situated on Cole Creek, a stream about 

 the size of the American Fork, which will irrigate some four or five 

 thousand acres. Shirt's Creek, which runs by Kanara, is flanked by a 

 considerable bottom, but the stream does not afford water sufficient to 

 irrigate but a part of it. West of this some twenty or twenty-five 

 miles, on another branch of Beaver River, are the celebrated Vegas de 

 Santa Clara, noted as a resting place after the fatigues of the desert 

 march from the West. By following these various streams, as they 

 move northwest toward some common reservoir, it is probable a num- 

 ber of irrigable spots may be found. ^ 



Crossing over the divide, which here sweeps round in a semicircular 

 form from a southwest to a northwest direction, we enter the valley 

 of the Rio Virgin, a part of the vast territory drained by the Bio Colo- 

 rado of the West. This stream, although sending down a considerable 

 volume of water, is wide and rapid and consequently shallow. It runs 

 through a country having a very barren appearance, here and there 

 cutting through rocky, cliffs and lava ridges, with occasional broad 

 stretches of sandy land covered with a very scanty growth of vegeta- 

 tion. But, notwithstanding the unpromising appearance of this sec- 

 tion, there are several settlements here, some of which (as Washington 

 and St. George) number several thousand souls. 



There are some arable spots which are very productive, and in fact 



*A11 the maps I have seen, including even the very accurate map of Colorado and 

 Utah, prepared by order of General Sherman, have an error in this section. They 

 have a number of small streams represented as rising in the plains west of the moun- 

 tains opposite Sevier River and running through the range to the River, to do which 

 it would be necessary for the water to run up hill. They rise in the range, and, run- 

 ning northwest into the plain, are lost in the sands, as all who have traveled along the 

 stage route here know, and as Fremont shows in his report. 



