8 
SEEPAGE OR RETURN WATERS FROM IRRIGATION. 
As we pass out of the first bottoms, we reach successively two 
or three terraces, or mesas, which are generally sandier and 
stretch back for varying distances. On the north side of the stream 
the watershed extends many miles, and the streams here indicated 
as Dry creek. Box Elder creek. Lone Tree creek, and several 
smaller channels, are simply ravines or depressions, which at times 
after storms are filled with water and may become at such periods 
raging torrents. Ordinarily their beds are sharply marked and 
^ cl e ar tributary country ; they are entirely dry, giving almost 
no indic^ioiT*^^^®^'®^ water. After their channels cross the 
lines of the canSfe^^ enter the irrigated country, these streams 
begin to carry runnii^ 
The lines of the follow approximately contour 
lines, indicate by their bends character of the country 
and the slope. On the north side oft?*^^^^^^ land, as a w hole, 
is more uniform than on the south sid^^®^^^^' irrigation 
is, therefore, confined to the north side of exception 
being in the region near Fort Collins aim ^ space near 
Greeley. Between the two there is a roua^"* more broken 
country on the south side of the stream, reached by 
canals from the Poudre. ’ \ 
On the south side, the divide which separatesY^® 
the Big Thompson is but a few miles from the ma^?V'''''"’ 
we reach range sixty-eight, the location of the div\, indicated 
closely by the ditch which takes from the stream 
Some of the waste of this canal passes into the Poud^^ river, io 
the west, the drainage on the south side, even the mm ^ drain- 
age, does not flow into the Poudre to any great extend ^ 
valleys being nearly all tributary to the stream to the 
The foothills are near the western portion of range 
following a line a little east of south. The first ranges 
known as hogbacks, are formed of gray sandstone, and ver^i shortly 
afterward the granite is met with, forming the foothills of tV 
Kockies. The sandstone appears in ridges, and even on 
for miles the same general appearance may be seen in the 
ridges which traverse the country from north to south, and\™n^^^ 
evident on the map by the intermediate valleys, in whichl 
streams like Dry creek. Box Elder creek, etc., approximatelyV^^' 
allel for a long distance and separated by pronounced ri^^^^’ 
these ridges sometimes form natural basins, which have 
largely used for storage purposes. As the amount of water th^® 
stored affects, to some extent, the amount of return waters, the prii 
cipal reservoirs in use are indicated on the map. 
§ 9. As the length of time that irrigation has been practiced, 
together with the distance of the land from the river, is an import¬ 
ant element in the amount of seepage, a fuller description of the 
