progressed from the north southward and canals are being taken out higher and higher up along the stream. The increase of population in the older towns, the enlargement of ditches, and the development of a comprehensive system of high-line canals, covering more land, has gone on rapidly, while at the same time newcomers have settled in the higher valleys and have dug new ditches. Thus the time has come when the need of water in the older and lower settlements has already far exceeded the summer discharge, and the younger men and emigrants in want of farms have gone higher and higher up stream, above other settlers, even to altitudes where only the hardier crops will flourish, but where water, fuel, and grass abound. In these high plateaus the water is turned from the small streams lavishly upon the gently sloping land, making hay meadows; but this greatly decreases the flow of the river at the points where most needed, 50 or 100 miles below. The matter left to itself is thus becoming a striking instance of the survival of the man highest up the stream, irrespective of his rights or of the best use of the water.

Six counties, depending largely for the support of their population upon this river, are thus involved in rancorous disputes, and are threatened with interminable litigation as the questions of priorities have been complicated by shifting of settlements, enlargement of ditches, and transfers of water rights, and the effect of water diversions in one part of the river upon any portion below can not easily be foreseen. In these straits, despairing of any immediate or certain settlement of the rights of each canal to the flowing water, the farmers are agitating the question of the storage of the flood waters in the hopes of thus providing water for all. There are in the upper catchment areas many fine reservoir sites where, by a small expenditure for embankments, large bodies of water can be held.

The largest and most important valley through which the Sevier flows is that from Joseph or Munroe northward to Gunnison, at the outlet of the San Pete Valley. Here are about a dozen towns of considerable size, surrounded by excellent farming lands of great extent. All the summer water of the river is taken out, the bed of the stream having been dry at

three different points along the valley in the summers of 1888 and 1889. Below each of these places, however, a notable amount of water returns to the bed by leaks or seepage, to be in turn diverted into a canal lower down. At the lower or northern end of this valley the river enters the canyons and flows north and westerly for about 40 miles through broken country, with but an occasional strip of bottom land along its course. Finally, at Leamington, the river debouches and begins to wind through the great plain, or Sevier Desert. Here are enormous tracts of fertile land, far greater in extent than the volume of the river can ever cover. The principal canal of this plain is the Deseret, taken out about 25 miles below Leamington and carrying water to the town of that name. Two or three small ditches are taken out at Leamington, but as they do not extend back from the river to any considerable distance their water largely returns again within a few miles.

The history of the Deseret Canal gives an illustration of the manner in which the first canal systems were laid out and the costly experiments that were made before permanence was obtained. The project, as first planned, was to take water from the river at a short distance above Deseret by building a dam across the channel and thus raising the water to an elevation sufficient to cause it to flow into the ditch. This could readily be done, as the banks of the stream are somewhat higher than the surrounding country.

The settlers came to the country in 1876, and two years later built the first dam, only to see it washed out by the next high flood. Dam after dam was built, each in turn, founded, from necessity, upon the alluvial clay deposits from the old lake, being undermined or flanked by the spring torrents. Finally the river forced its way into a waste ditch and cut a new channel, thus ruining the whole system in spite of much labor spent in fruitless efforts to turn the river back into its former place. After every resource had been tried, successive crops being lost, and the farmers nearly brought to ruin, they awoke to the fact that they were attempting the impossible, that a dam built in the clay banks and bed of the river could not stand. The first system was then abandoned and a new

canal taking water from the river higher up, was constructed at considerable expense. This promises success, as the necessity of raising the water by a dam has thus been obviated.

All this expense has been incurred to save what are practically waste waters from the numerous canals above, and there are now grave doubts as to the permanence of this supplywhether any water will be left in the latter part of the crop season. As in cases previously mentioned, where inhabitants of the large valleys of the upper Sevier were anxiously discussing the storage problem and how to get the stored water down to those who pay for it, the settlements about Deseret are eagerly questioning the advisability of attempting storage in lower valleys or in depressions among the foothills along the edge of the desert adjacent to the river. Hopes are entertained that by diverting some of the flood water of the river into such reservoirs these lowest and last users of the river water may be independent of the river during the critical periods.

The amount of water which passed Leamington-and which would be thus available for storage-during the last year has been measured at the gauging station located at a convenient point near this town, giving the results shown in the tables of monthly discharges.

SNAKE RIVER BASIN.

The Snake River and its tributaries receive the drainage of that part of Wyoming west of the Continental Divide, of nearly all Idaho below the forty-fifth parallel, and also of southeastern Oregon and northeastern Nevada. The elevation of the main river at the junction of the North and South Forks is about 4,800 feet, and at its union with the Columbia River, near Ainsworth, Washington, under 340 feet.

The headwaters of the Snake may be divided into two distinct catchment areas, separated by a high mountain range. One of these, the basin of the North Fork, receives its water entirely from the mountains on the east, while the South Fork Basin includes all the area between the Bear River range on the south and the Continental Divide on the north and east.

NORTH FORK.

The basin of the North Fork may be subdivided into three distinct areas, commonly known as the Henry Lake, Fall River, and Teton Basins. Henry Lake, the real head of the North Fork, is a shallow sheet of water, about 7 miles long, with a varying width of from 1 to 3 miles. It is situated almost on top of the divide of the Rocky Mountains, the elevation between its watershed and that of the Madison River in Montana being very low. It is only during the melting of the snow in the spring that there is any discharge of note from this lake, and in 1889 the flow ceased entirely about September 1. The average elevation of the basin is approximated at 6,500 feet.

About 20 miles below the lake the North Fork receives a large tributary on the east or left bank, evidently the flow from large springs in the high mountain range on the west line of the National Park. The flow of this creek on August 1, 1889, was 300 second-feet.

The total discharge from this basin was measured at a point about a mile above the mouth of Fall River, which is 10 miles from St. Anthony post-office and about 65 miles from Eagle Rock.

The Fall River and Teton Basins are similar in extent and elevation of catchment area, being separated from each other by a spur of the Teton Range, and receiving the drainage of these mountains. The elevation of the highest peak, Grand Teton, is about 13,700 feet, and of the plateaus at the base 5,500 to 8,000 feet. The precipitation of this region is almost entirely in the form of snow. Trappers and hunters who have occasion to be in this country during the winter report the snowfall to be from 5 to 10 feet on the level, and in drifts 50 feet or more in depth.

These mountain basins may all be described in the same words: very heavily timbered, with no undergrowth except along the streams, and occasionally large parks or open stretches of immense natural pasturage, surrounded by peaks rising abruptly from plateaus on which the snow lies for five months of the year.

The streams flowing through this plateau country have during most of their length a very slight grade, are wide, and consequently quite shallow. Their fall is nearly all gained in rapids, sometimes sheer descents of 20 to 30 feet, followed by long stretches of sluggish water. After leaving the mountains their fall becomes more uniform, and some have carved deep channels. Fall River has a decided and continuous slope after leaving the foothills, while the Teton River, only 10 miles south, has a very gentle decline.

The discharge of Fall River was measured at a point 6 miles from the junction with the North Fork and above most of the irrigating ditches, the Springville Canal being the only canal of importance taking water above this point.

The Teton was measured at the mouth of its canyon, about 3 miles from the town of Wilford, the point being a half mile above the highest irrigation ditch and above all water diversions.

There is as yet no irrigation carried on in the mountain valleys. The settlers lower down cut the natural hay along the streams in the mountains and haul it for use during the winter. On Henry Lake Fork, above the mouth of Fall River, the country is unsettled. On Fall River the first steps towards irrigation were taken in 1889. Two small canals were built, but no land has yet been brought under cultivation.

In Teton River Valley all the water of that stream has been appropriated, but is sufficient to irrigate only a small part of the land in the valley. The divide between the Fall River and Teton Valleys near the foothills is very low, and there is a movement on foot among the settlers in the latter valley to attempt to bring the waters of the Fall River onto the Teton side.

SOUTH FORK.

The South Fork heads in Lewis Lake and flows into Jackson Lake, and then in a southwesterly direction through Wyoming, receiving all the drainage between the Teton Range on the west and the Continental Divide on the east. After reaching the Idaho line it flows in a northwesterly direction until its union with the North Fork east of Market Lake.

After leaving its canyon and entering the Snake River Val