226 
GREAT BASIN PROBLEMS 
The precious metals taken from Nevada mines represent the total 
assessed valuation of the State several times over. One mine in 
Utah paid in dividends in one year one-twelfth of the assessed 
valuation of the State of Utah. 
The problems of the mining industry have been solved chiefly 
by careful scientific research, yet the gifts from the industry to re¬ 
search are almost negligible. The same story may be told regard¬ 
ing other industrial activities within the Great Basin. The progres¬ 
sive people of the Basin States have given by taxation for educa¬ 
tion almost beyond their means. 
The remarkable resources of the Great Basin must be studied 
and laid before the country by research grants from corporations 
and men of wealth. How to secure the necessary financial support 
for scientific investigation is perhaps the main research problem 
of the Great Basin. Great as this problem is, wherever scientific 
work is undertaken, it is greatest under such population conditions 
as prevail in the Great Basin. 
Many studies have been made of the Great Basin, but for the 
most part they have been very general in character. Detailed sur¬ 
veys need to be made of the climate, minerals, soils, waters, plants 
and animals of this interesting region. Such studies are certain to 
yield valuable results, and to suggest important investigations of 
general interest. 
The Great Basin, and the immediately neighboring country, with 
its sparse covering of vegetation and plainly exposed rocks, have 
long been a fascinating field for the geologist, and many ponder¬ 
ous volumes attest the multitude of data secured. Nevertheless 
every canyon opening into the Great Basin is worthy of further 
study, and should be studied in detail. Every other natural fea¬ 
ture should be given similar treatment. The famous Great Salt 
Lake itself is only partially known. Most interesting results should 
flow from the study of the living things in the Great Basin, for 
from the arid plain of the desert valley, through the canyons, to 
the humid, short-season mountain valley is only a distance of a 
few miles, sometimes only four or five miles. This juxtaposition 
of arid plain and humid valley, furnishes a climatological overlapp¬ 
ing that certainty would be strongly reflected in Great Basin life. 
Moreover, the study of human life under desert conditions is 
only in its infancy. In view of the fact that civilization is being 
