822 Editors’ Table. 
rendered productive by irrigation, and give an earnest of the great 
possibilities which await the entire region. The productiveness of 
the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada would be equal to that of the 
most favored of temperate regions of the earth were water only 
accessible, as the results of irrigation by the Mormons and others 
have demonstrated. 
The attempt to supply the lack of water by artesian wells has 
proven successful only in limited localities, and it has been long 
evident that some other source of supply must be looked for. Major 
J. W. Powell having given the subject his attention for many years, 
has at leached a solution as nearly adequate as the circumstances 
permit. He has proposed to Congress that the U. S. Government 
dam up the waters of the streams and rivers which issue from the 
various Rocky Mountain ranges, and thus accumulate their waters 
for a wholesale system of irrigation. an 
There appears to be nothing impracticable about this proposition. 
The manner in which the rivers issue from the Rocky Mountains 
in narrow canyons seems to be well adapted for the execution of 
such an enterprise. The artificial closing of the canyons of the 
Platte and Arkansas on the east, of the Rio Grande on the south, 
and of the Green and Gunnison on the west, would seem to present 
no great engineering difficulties, and immense bodies of water would 
be thus secured for purposes of irrigation. The benefits to agri 
culture resulting would be immense, and regions now almost useless 
to mankind, would become well populated. Some large regions 
would, however, not be reached by this system, especially a great 
part of the Great Basin. ; 
Congress has appropriated $100,000 towards this important 
project, to be expended under the direction of Major Powell. Pcs 
observe with pleasure that Major Powell regards this enterprise ~ 
entirely distinct from the U. S. Geological Survey. We hope he 
will continue to resist the attempt of some members of the ghee 
House to saddle the expense of this undertaking on the Geology 
Survey ; otherwise we will have another and gigantic illastrase® 
of a purely scientific enterprise swamped by the utilitarianism 
which is so rampant and all-absorbing in this country. 
