234 D. T. MacDougal—The Salton Sea. 



The Alamo and New rivers are the natural channels by 

 which the Colorado river overflowed into the Sink before 

 recent engineering operations were undertaken. The Alamo 

 was the most direct, but its connection with the Colorado was 

 in general rather obscure and liable to obstruction and oblitera- 

 tion by vegetation and the deposition of silt. The flow of water 

 was intermittent and irregular and only occurred in seasons of 

 extremely high water. The New River flow did not come 

 directly from the Colorado, but partly from the Alamo by way 

 of the Garza and other sloughs, and partly as overflow from 

 the shallow cachement basin of Volcano Lake. This lake was 

 itself filled, in seasons of normal high water, through the chan- 

 nels of the Paredones, the Pescadero, and other less clearly 

 defined waterways. Normally the whole efflux from the lake 

 went directly into the Hardy, and so into tidewater, but in sea- 

 sons of exceptionally high water it would be forced also to 

 right and left — into New River on the one hand and into the 

 lower Pescadero on the other, and so into the lower Hardy 

 and the Gulf. The influence of the tides is noticeable in the 

 Hardy as far as the point of the Cucopa Mountains and has at 

 times been instrumental in forcing a part of this Hardy and 

 Paredones flood-water into the Pattie Basin. 



The Hardy, with its associated sloughs, backwaters, and 

 lagoons, has always occupied the position of relief channel for 

 the flooded and surcharged delta in times of high water, filling 

 thus a somewhat analogous position to that of the Bahr el 

 Zaraf in the economy of the Upper Nile. 



Since 1901 the flow of water in the Delta has been greatly 

 changed, as will be detailed later, owing to the various 

 engineering operations carried out by or on behalf of the irri- 

 gation companies and settlers in the Imperial Valley. 



During the summer of 1890 the water from the Colorado 

 River filled many of the small channels and lagoons toward 

 the southwest, and in 1891 flowed through into the Salton 

 Sink and forced a lake several miles in length. The interven- 

 ing region was comparatively little known and its drainage 

 system hardly comprehended at that time, and the appearance 

 of such a large body of water in close proximity to the Southern 

 Pacific Railroad attracted much attention and gave rise to 

 some of the wildest of rumors and hypotheses as to its origin. 

 William Convers, followed by one or two others, succeeded in 

 making the journey by boat from the Colorado to the lake, and 

 so the mystery was solved. 



Mr. H. T. Cory, who has a comprehensive knowledge of the 

 conditions in the Delta of the Colorado, concludes that some 

 flood water has found its way down the channel of New River 

 toward the Salton every year since the inundation of 1891, and 



