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Show 294 REPORT OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS. not desert, but diversified between mountain and desert, the northern portions of which, especially in the vicinity of the Salt and Gila rivers, are susceptible of cultivation, forming some of the finest grazing^ields in the world, with large patches of pine and other timber, and admitting of considerable settlement. Kidges traverse these portions, those running north and south being usually mineral-bearing, that have been prospected, but can scarcely be said tb have been worked for the precious minerals. The next is the plateau and canon district, which has been delineated along its western line in the earlier reports and maps of the survey, the eastern limit running along the continental divide north as far as latitude 37c; from that point to the mouth of the Green and Grand rivers, thence in a nearly due west line to the great mesa-wall, passing northward of the Lower Grand Gafion, with an arm of the great interior basin in the vicinity of latitude 38° and longitude 113°, approximately. The third portion is the province of the mountains, with their outlying foot-hills, being the1 basins, respectively, of the Green and Grand rivers, whose peculiarities have been noted by earlier explorers, and are being examined from time to time by Government parties. The first or desert province is approximately 72,889 square miles; the plateau province approximately 83,980 square miles; the mountain province approximately 85,190 square miles. The majority of the land within the drainage of this river and its tributaries is still owned by the Government. The uses to which it may be applied must be confined largely to grazing and mining purposes, while local spots will admit of cultivation by irrigation process, in connection with the gradual development of the country, yet the husbanding of water becomes a matter of great import to all those who may at some future time occupy this portion of our interior domain. For a distance of 435 miles from the junction of the Green and Grand rivers it traverses territorial domain ; and all that part of the Graud ttiver still traversing public lands, as well as the basin of the Green Kiver, is now owned by the Government, with few exceptions, and the disposition of its waters is a subject over which the General Government should assume entire control. Legislation may be had defining more clearly and with greater certainty the rights of persons settling along the banks of main and tributary streams. It will be seen that the amount of precipitation, except in the mountainous province, is very small, and that little which is collected and, for which the river is the main channel of discharge, should be utilized in the most efficient manner. That can only be done by using its waters, so far as practicable, upon the land along its banks and within the immediate valleys adjacent thereto, and by artificial reservoirs. The measurement of the waters of this stream at proper points within the three provinces is a matter of importance, and the same should bo ordered at an early day, so that the volume of water that could be made available for irrigation at stated intervals of the year, and especially during the seasons best adapted to crops, might become known, to the end that general legislation could direct the pro rata uses of the same for purposes of irrigation, when needed by actual settlers who have acquired title from the Government, or who are about to do so in pur-Ruance of the homestead-laws. There being no law upon this subject to protect the rights of settlers upon streams as against prior occupants, nothing now prevents the diversion of the water of any stream, not alone of this gre.it river above the head of navigation, but of all those flowing through Government lands in this and all other drainage-basins of the Western States and Territories,- by interested proprietors, whose locus |