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Show DO , j WHAT OUR RIVERS CARRY. T ; , t: : If Colorado river discharges during-an ' oj avoragc year into tho Gulf of Call- f f fomm CKiS.000.000 tons of mud and j i silt as suspended inatter. In addition r i to this dissolved substances In tho '; l2 water Include 4.550,000 tons of sodium I chloride, or common salt; 3,740,000 ifi tonB of Glauber's salts, 4,000.000 tons fll of lime. 2,400,000 tons of gypsum and f. 4,300.000 tons of Epsom salts. In ' II spito of all this dissolved material ' f tho Colorado at its mouth is not con- , j sldorod to be a stream of unusually t M high mineralization for that region of '5j tho country The reason Is that tho river also carries so enormous an , amount of water that the dissolved ' W salts constitute a comparathely small J ! proportion of tho total discharge Oth- j; jj er streams in the country contain dls- jj I solved salts in greater concentration v I for example, the Elm fork of the J Red river in Oklahoma discharges ; ta nearly 1,200,000 tons of common salt I annually. Although this amount is S K not bo groat as mat. aiscnarged by f l the Colorado, It is much greater in j" ffi proportion to the Blze of the area th drained The discharge of salt from J JJ! tho Colorado Is equal to twenty tons 5 JN annually to each square mile drained J U by the river, but the salt in the Elm K fork of the Red river Is equal to 16S0 v I tons por square mile of area drained. 1. 1 The same river discharges annually 5 I 177,000 tons of magnesium chloride, a Wt 108,000 tons of Epsom salts, 090,000 j' 1 tons of gypsum and 54,000 tons of A III lime.. These quantities, too, are con- Ll sldorably grcnter than those carried fc in the Colorado In proportion to tha ; ' I size of the drainage area. ", I Tho Belle Fourche river at Bello : Fourche, S D., discharges 191,000 ) ': tons of gypsum, 79,000 tons of Glati- J:B bor's salts and 236,000 tons of Ep- i I sora salts. The mud and silt carried ' W& in suspension by' this river amount to 1,100,000 tons. Milk river at Havre, y tgj Mont, discharges annual 41,000 tons j - JjS of soda: Payette river in Iduho dis- , charges 46,000 tons; Salt river at g Roosevelt, Ariz., discharges 2SS.000 S tons of salt and 170.000 tons of Ep- 11 J soin salts, and the Rio Grande dls- Jpi cha-ges 245.000 tons of limo and 236,- 'Jjg 000 tons of Glauber's salts. .5? |