D. T. MacDougal—The Salton Sea. 237 



always hampered at its month by great and violent tides, 

 wandering at present virtually unchecked over a large area of 

 friable alluvium with downward grades in several directions. 



All these conditions tend, as may be readily imagined, 

 toward a condition of instability and possible geographical 

 change ; in fact, it is probable that even if the Colorado and 

 the general drainage conditions through the Alamo and its 

 associated channels had not been interfered with in any way 

 by the operations of the irrigation engineers, another diversion 

 of the river water towards the west was about due from the 

 natural causes outlined above, and would in any case have 

 ensued within a few years. 



It is furthermore evident that as so much of the flow of the 

 river during the growing season of the early Spring is now 

 diverted and utilized for agricultural purposes, and as the bed 

 of the river in its lower reaches is left practically dry during 

 the period of most rapid growth of the Delta vegetation, its 

 obstruction and elevation will be more rapid and the stability 

 of the irrigation and protective works menaced more and more 

 unless adequate measures are taken for controlling and storing 

 the flood waters of the early summer upon the upper Colorado. 



The recent maximum level of Salton Sea was reached on 

 Feb. 10, 1907, on which date an expedition from the Desert 

 Laboratory which had started from Mecca near its northwest- 

 ern extremity in a sailboat on Feb. 7, landed near the Carrizo 

 sand dunes and made a camp for the purpose of observing 

 shore phenomena and relative humidity. At this time the sea 

 contained about seven cubic miles of water, which covered an 

 area of about 150 square miles, with the deepest sounding 

 showing about 84 feet. This indicated a surface of about 200 

 feet below sea-level (U. S. G. S. datum). The loose, flaky sur- 

 face of the desert moistened by the water made boggy shores, 

 which made landing extremely difficult until sorting and solid- 

 ification by wave action had taken place. In places the water 

 extended out into the channels of the dry washes for as much 

 as a quarter of a mile or even farther, and the footing near 

 these was uncomfortable and even dangerous (fig. 1). 



The inundation had covered up the salt deposit in the lowest 

 part of the Sink, which was being worked and the product 

 marketed (tig. 2). A group of mud-volcanoes near the north- 

 eastern shore, which had at various times displayed much activ- 

 ity, was covered to a depth of nearly forty feet and no disturb- 

 ance of the surface above them was noted. * 



* Veatch, J. A. : Notes on a visit to the " Mud Volcanoes in the Colorado 

 Desert in the month of July, 1857," this Journal (2), xxvi, 288, 1858. See also 

 Le Conte : An Account of Some Volcanic Springs in the Desert of Colorado 

 in Southern California, ibid., (2), xix, i, 1855. 



