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out of this stream. About three-fourths of the water carried by the 
stream in summer is used by the mill. Mr. McCorkle states that this 
creek has had no higher nor more turbid spring floods in recent years 
and carries no less water 1n summer than formerly. This is the only 
information secured in the nature of a stream measurement. Certainly 
the mill owner would have noted any important diminution in a margin 
of only one-fourth. | 
The available evidence is not sufficient to settle this question, but 
the ranchers, while every opportanity for careful consideration of their 
proposition is due them, must present a stronger case than they have 
yet presented if they are to maintain their contention. 
EFFECT OF FORESTS ON THE MELTING OF SNOW. 
The influence of the forest cover of the Cascades on the melting of 
snow was a matter on which information was sought. During the 
winter of 1896-97 there was a controversy in the Oregon newspapers, 
in which Mr. John Minto maintained that the forest covering was of 
no value in lessening the rapidity of the melting of snow in spring. 
The points made by Mr. Minto were that in small groves of trees the 
snow goes off in spring earlier than in surrounding open areas; that the 
temperature inside a forest is slightly higher in winter than in the open; 
and that the great snow areas left upon the mountains late in summer 
are almost invariably outside the forest area. On these premises Mr. 
Minto based his conclusion. 
By actual observation and by the securing of snow-fall records and 
other facts it was learned that while Mr. Minto’s premises are of 
unquestioned accuracy his conclusions do not follow, and that as a 
matter of fact over almost the whole timbered area the snow goes off 
much more slowly in spring than in open areas under the same condi- 
tions. It is true, and there are various evident reasons why it should 
be true, that under a small grove of trees in an open plain the ground 
becomes bare eariier in the spring than in the open, but it is unneces- 
sary to go into the details here. It is true from actual temperature 
records that the shade temperature within a forest is slightly higher 
than the shade temperature in the open, but this is not the only condi- 
tion that affects the melting of snow. Itis true in general that the 
snow found upon mountains late in summer lies upon open slopes; but 
this is due to a heavy snow-fall, dense drifting, and a retarded melting 
caused by low temperature at these high elevations or on northerly 
exposures. The absence of timber does not prevent the snow from 
melting, but the presence of snow through the whole or nearly the 
whole year has prevented the growth of timber. 
In the Fort Klamath plain, part of which is timbered and part open, 
it was found that the snow disappeared in spring about six weeks earlier 
in the open than in the forest. At Government Camp, on the southwest 
slope of Mount Hood, we were informed, the snow lies about six weeks 
longer in the forest than it does on denuded areas having the same 
