20 GEOLOGY OF SW. IDAHO AND SE. OREGON. [bull. 217. 
taken in suspension and redeposited is coarse as well as more abund- 
ant than formerly. Destructive denudation is thus in process on the 
hillsides and an equally destructive deposition taking place in the 
valleys. Owing to overgrazing the grasses do not have an opportunity 
to mature their seeds and scarcely to sprout from the old roots, and 
the destruction of the natural pastures is thus for several reasons 
going on at an accelerated rate. One result of the quicker transfer 
of the surface waters from the upland to the valleys is the excavation 
of channels, frequently from 5 to 20 feet deep, in valley floors, where, 
previous to the change referred to, the water spread out over the sur- 
face and deposited fine silt instead of eroding as at £>resent. The 
cutting of channels has, in many instances, resulted in a far more 
complete subdrainage of the valleys, and in consequence has caused 
the disappearance of the rye grass which formerly flourished in them 
and its replacement by sagebrush. A conspicuous illustration of the 
process just outlined is furnished in the broad-bottomed valley of 
Willow Creek, northwest of Yale, in the northern part of Malheur 
County, Oreg. This valley, previous to the introduction of stock in 
excessive numbers, is reported to have been without a dry-season 
stream channel, and to have been clothed over great areas with a 
luxuriant growth of rye grass, which was mowed each year for hay. 
Now, owing to the more rapid escape of the rain water falling on the 
upland, a stream channel 8 or 10 feet deep has been excavated for a 
distance of a score of miles through the central part of the valley. 
In summer this freshly cut channel is dry and contains only occa- 
sional pools of water, and the rich land adjacent to it is so completely 
subdrained that the meadows of rye grass have disappeared and been 
replaced by sagebrush. 
The cause for the recent changes just referred to is, as stated, over- 
grazing. The lands that have suffered, but more particularly the 
uplands, belong to the Federal Government, and are considered as 
free pastures. The reason for the ruin that has been wrought is the 
greed of the people owning stock. The remedy is the prohibition of 
free grazing on public lands. Now that practically all the land which 
can be irrigated, excepting through the use of artesian water and by 
the construction of storage reservoirs, such as can only be built by 
State or national aid, has passed to private owners, it seems desirable 
that the remaining land, and especialty the hills and mountains, 
should be placed on the market at such a figure and under such con- 
ditions that they can be acquired in large tracts and cared for as 
private pastures. The beneficial influences of such a system are 
already shown, although illegally and in defiance of Federal laws, 
by the extensive tracts of Government land that have been inclosed 
with fences by numerous individuals and stock companies. If the 
grazing lands pass to private owners the interests of such owners 
would be to decrease and otherwise regulate the degree to which 
they are grazed, and to conserve and regenerate the rapidly vanishing 
grass crop. 
