TITANIC FIGHT WITH NATURE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13290, 20 May 1907, Page 3

TITANIC FIGHT WITH NATURE.

American papers gate interesting details of a great fight between, man and Nature. Just where the Colorado River crosses

the boundary between.'California and Mexico, a great valley, known as the " Imperial Valley," strikes off to the westward. The sail of both' valleys consists of fine silt, brought down through coun'.less ages from the Rocky Mountains. The soil is variously estimated as being from over 20C0ft to more than 5000 ft in depth, and was so dry that the region was long called the 'Colorado Desert." It was ound. however, that the silt only required water to make it a most fertile soil, and hence vast, irrigation works have been constructed in both valleys. The Southern Pacific Railway runs along the Colorado Valley, and it has a 100 pline serving tha Imperial one, in which several large towns had sprung.up. Curiously enough, the Imperial valley is at a far lower level than the Colorado one, and slopes away from the latter, so that its far end, known as Salton Sink, is- 288 feet below ocean, level. At that part are vast deposits of salt, which supply a'great part of the United States, in 1990 a. cut was made to take water from the Colorado River to the irrigation system of the Imperial valley, but this soon became choked with silt, and useless. A second cut lower down shared the samei fate, so it was resolved to cut a channel, 50t wide, farther down, where the ground had a steeper fall, and where was hoped the silt would not lodge. Thiis work was in progress in June, 1906, iearly summer in that region), and a-s the Imperial people were clamouring for water to start their crops the usual precaution for erecting sluice gates to regulate the flow was deferred till afier the cut should be finished. No danger was apprehended from this, but suddenly a great flood in the Gila River, a tributary of Ul2 Colorado, poured a vast body of water into the latter. Much of this rushed through the cut, which rapidly widened and deepened, so that by tlie end of July it had attained the dimensions of 3000 feet wide by about 40 feet deep, the silt fairly dissolving before it. Tha Colorado below the breach was left dry, and by this time the towns of Mexicali and Calixieo in Imperial Valley were" destroyed, and the loop line of the "Southern Pacific Railway was submerged. The line was: twice shifted to a higher level, but in vain for the water fiikd all the lower end of the Imperial valley, forming a lake 45 miles long by from" 10 to 18 miles wide, which was rapidly increasing; in fact at the rate of half a mile a day. Three hundred miles of irrigation works in the Imperial valley had become rushing rivers, while those in the Colorado valley were left dry. Two attemp's were made in vain to stop the flow of water, and then four of the most experianced hydraulic engineers in the States were called in to devise means for coping with the evil. As the result every quarry within 350 miles was setto work night and clay to supply blocks of stone, many of them over five tons in weight. All goods traffic was stopped, even the cars already loaded. b?ing unloaded, whilit every car within hundreds of miles was pressed into the service to carry maevials for the great dam to be constructed. Only mail trains were allowed regular passage, and cars of stone were even attached to these. Eleven thousand men were engaged, and toiled night and day for many weeks. A row of great piles was driven from side to side of the opening, and thKC were coupled together with cables of braided steel wire. Then a va---t mattress of willow fascines. 90ft wide by 3900 ft long, was constructed and sunk if front of the piles ; The fascines were bound together by 12 lines of cable wire, each cable taking tivo turns round every fascine in its course. This mattress was* then pinned down by jules driven through it. A branch railway was constructed to the gap, and across it, and then the work of filling b?gan. Thousands of cars had been loaded in readiness, filled

with the stone blocks, gravel and clay. First the stone was tipped on to the mattress ; then the gravel to fill the interstices between the stones, and then the clay ■ to stop the chinks. So complete were the arrangements that a carload was tipped every 4f minutes night and day. Of course a great deal of the material spread beyond the. sites of the mat-trass, so that when the dam was finishe'd its width at the bottom w?.s from 250 to 300 feet, and its height 44 feet. 2200 cords of fascines, 1,100 piles, from 40 feet to 60 feet long, 40 mile--; of stesl cable, 38C0 feet of treble railway, 70,000 tons of rock, and 500,000 cubic yards of gravel and clay were used in the work of forming, the dam, which occupied 86 days and cost 1,250,000 dollars. The work was completed at noon on. the fourth of November, 1906, and there was great rejoicing, as it was estimated thnt. 1,500,000 acres of rich land had besn saved, besides 300 miles of irrigation canals. Before the dam. was finished 60, 000 acres of the Imperial valley had been submerged, or so cut up as to be ruined; and 80 miles of railway track were submerged. This was on November 4th, but nn December 9th the water undermined the whole structure and caroled it away. Tt was estimated that at least 2,000,000 dollors would be required to stop the river, and it would cost six million dollars to make a secure, job. At the date of last advices; January, 1907, proposals had been made for raising the latter sum. Two and a hal" million dollars were promised locally, and it was hoped that the United States Government would cottiibute the remander, but many peop n e thought it impossible to remedy the evil, that it. would be better to let the land in the Imperial va.lley (valued at 103,000.000 dollars) go, and allow the waters to form an inland sea-, as when this had eventuated the Colorado would revert, toils old course.

Tell of the good of it. Say what you should of it, All that you could of it, _ ; Say what you would of it ; Tell of colds cured by it, Good health ensured by it, - Long life secured by it—., Woods Great Peppermint Cure. ...