THE ESCALANTE RIVER.
This stream enters the Colorado next north of the Paria. It rises under the wall forming the eastern face of the Aquarius Plateau; flows first northeast, then east, and finally southeast, before reaching the Colorado. Its length is 90 miles, the lower three-fourths being in a narrow cañon having vertical walls ranging from 900 to 1,200 feet in height. Through this gorge the river sweeps, sometimes filling the whole space from wall to wall; sometimes winding from side to side in a flood plain of sand, and always shifting its bed more or less with every freshet. Not an acre of accessible arable land is known in the whole length of the cañon, and its depth precludes the possibility of using the waters of the river on the lands above. Near the head of the southern branch of the Escalante, in what is known as Potato Valley, and at an elevation of about 5,000 feet, is an area of about 6 square miles of available land. The flow of water in this branch was 90 cubic feet per second in July, 1875. A portion of this area is now under cultivation, and is said to produce good crops. A portion of the east flank of the Aquarius Plateau is drained by a number of creeks that join the Escalante in the deep gorge below Potato Valley; but they all enter close cañons, in which no areas of arable land are known at an altitude low enough for successful cultivation. Part of the waters of these creeks might be used to irrigate grass lands at an altitude of about 8,000 feet; but the conditions of pasturage are such in this region that the amount practically available is small.