OCR Text |
Show -24- aridity and barrenness. Even sage-brush, grease-wood, and mesquite, those wretched products of the desert, with which, as with rags and tatters, nature vainly tries to cover her unlovely poverty, are unable to withstand the prevailing heats and withering winds. The Indians who live on the border of this region, with a lively appreciation of its horrors, call it "Death Desert," and they have a belief that the wicked are doomed to wander there without water in summer and without clothes in winter. At a period, geologically not remote, this region was a portion of the Gulf of California. The delta of the Colorado River extending southward has cut off communication with the waters of the gulf, and thus deprived of a connection with its source of supply, evaporation has changed it from an inland lake to an arid plain, whose surface is lower than the bed of the river, and quite a considerable portion is lower than the sea level. The soil is in most parts a clay, more or less mixed with sand and lacustrine and marine shells, and of a quality that would, under favorable circumstances, be very fertile. It is believed that the superfluous waters of the Colorado River turned into this desolate plain, would suffice to change its resemblance to the Rhadamanthus abode of Indian fiends to fertile fields, the home of plenty and contentment. The foregoing extracts show the feasibility of the proposed undertaking, and also foreshadow the difficulties by which it would be attended. They also show that it is a labor that can never be accomplished by the Government without a departure from its traditional policy. That the enterprise is one meriting favorable consideration need not be further argued. It only remains to be considered whether the present bill meets the requirements and should become a law in its actual shape, or in an amended form. |