210 



The results obtaiucd gave a miuimiun outflow of 1,525 cubic feet per 

 second, or, expressed iu other words, of 3J:,000,000 imperial gallons per 

 hour. Shoshone, Lewis, and Heart Lakes poured into Snake Elver 104 

 cubic feet per second. With few exceptions all the principal rivers 

 leaving the Park were gauged and the discharge from the others care- 

 fully estimated, taking as a basis the number of square miles contained 

 in the drainage basin and the flow of the streams. The results give 

 what may be considered as approximately the minimum discharge from 

 the Park — a volume of water equal to 1 cubic foot per second per square 

 mile over an area somewhat more than 4,000 square miles j or as Dr. 

 Hallock, of the U. S. Geological Survey, who supervised the gauging of the 

 streams, has stated it, an amount of water which would make a river 

 5 feet deep and 190 feet wide, with a current of 3 miles per hour." For 

 a region bordering on the arid plains to the eastward this is certainly 

 an excessive amount. 



According to Humphreys and Abbott, the mean annual discharge 

 from the Mississippi Eiver at its mouth amounts to 675,000 cubic feet 

 per second from a drainage basin of 1,147,000 square miles. This gives 

 .53 cubic feet per second per square mile, or a trifle more than one half 

 the minimum estimate for the Yellowstone Park country. Surely is it 

 not one of the treasures of the nation, to be carefully guarded iu every 

 possible way '1 



If the broad valley of the Lower Yellowstone from Glendive to Liv- 

 ingston is ever to be occupied by an agricultural population, the}' will 

 at no distant day need all the water flowing from the sources of the 

 river for purposes of irrigation. In the Gallatin Valley, the finest 

 wheat region in Montana, the hard-working farmers are already quar- 

 relling over the distribution of the water running into their inadequately 

 supplied irrigating ditches, while the equally industrious wood chopper 

 is busily cutting away the timber from the headwaters of the streams 

 in the mountains. 



In another way this broad forest-protected reservoir is singularly 

 well situated to be of incalculable service to the nation. Throughout 

 the summer the prevailing dry winds from the west in their i)assage 

 across this moist mountainous region absorb immense quarjtities of water 

 ready under favorable conditions to be again precipitated over the 

 agricultural and grazing lands to the eastward. In camping near tim- 

 ber line for weeks at a time, I have never failed to be impressed with the 

 absorbing powers of these winds, the effect of which may be seen upon 

 the snow fields any hot summer day. The melting of the snow and the 

 running down of the water frequently appears inconsiderable as com- 

 pared with the absorbing power of the hot, thirsty winds. Where all 

 the available lands on the Great Plains is being taken up for settlement 

 by a rapidly advancing civilization, the economic distribution of the 

 Park waters is a question of the utmost importance to the nation. 



It is proposed to extend the boundaries of the Yellowstone Park to 



