Show the great basin between the mountains anu tho sierra navi la lies a great area of relatively low land though portions of ir ire thousands of feet above sea level this is designated by geographers as the great basin for the reason thai few of its rivers flow beyond mountain barriers but lose themselves in the desert sands or empty into lakes whose watery arc lost bv evaporation nearly allaf the country included in alio gibat basin 18 truly desert land the afe peca of gome barta f M i tt I 1 y A ask chiq been changed by mi ration most of the land is exceedingly productive athen batons supplied to it as H is demonstrated miny a cars ago b the mons who settled in utah and founded a trona and prosperous that has since grown and branched out in many directions many thousand desert acoca hac reclaimed in the great basin and are supporting prosperous homec and large annual returns the of atto irn gation projects of the alio truc carfon in nevada and i the strawberry valley project ill utah arc in tins area the new supply for alie city of LOE angelea is taken from the giedt basin through a long conduit the conception and construction of which hive been noteworthy features in recent engineering development along certain edges of the basin where it ascends to mountain crests like the wasatch range in utah and the sierra in california iverc arc many valuable sources of water power some of which hive been profitably developed naturally in such a region the economic development of which is so entirely dependent in its water resource studies of the flow of streams can not fail to be of the utmost importance during the last 20 eais or more work of this kind hag been carried on by the united states geological survey and results are published annually in survey leports water cupply paper just issued covert the results of stream measurements made in the great basin in 1911 the work was done in all parts of alie basin and the report which contains pages includes records of flow obtained at 98 stations it is made up largely of tables giving records of alie flow of the streams at the stations during the year and contains only such text as is necessary to explain alie tables the report is intended for ue of engineers and others who desire information in regard to the quantity of water in the streams at various times in the year in connection with the uth bation of the streams for various apes of hydraulic construction great salt lake is the largest of the water bodies of the great basin it receives and disposes of the discharge except that which is diverted for irrigation of a number of livers the moat important being the be ir the weber and the jordan other lakes are ow ens lake which receives the flow from the on ens riv cr basin walker lake into which is discharged the water from the walker river basin carson sink including hum bolder lake into which flow the waters of carson and hum bolt rivers and pyramid and winnemucca lakes which receive the discharge f truckee river all thep lakes are located in except the great salt lake which is in utah and owens laap which ia in eastern california in the oregon par tion of the great basin there are a number of lakes including malteur malheur Mal heur carnei and warnar Lake lahoe which lies partly in california and partly in nevada is a high sierra lake which receives the w iter from alie surrounding mountain peaks and discharges it through truckee river into pyramid and winnemucca lakes there are many other bodies of water of greater or less importance copied of watce supply paper may bo obtained arco of charge on application to the director U S geologic il Survey C |