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,. .' California had extended into that area--and there was the danger, which actually came about, of the discharge of the entire river into Mex~co, and through Mexico, into the Imperial Valley. The topog- raphy is such that it is very easy for the river to take that course. The river runs, as we might say, on the edge of a saucer, not sea level naturally but above sea level, the lands lying below sea level, or very c lose to it. "Through the years following, which saw many developments and expansion of protective works in Mexico, we come to the year 1916, which produced in the month of January the largest known, recorded, and measured flood on the lower river of 240,000 cubic feet per second. Strange enough, most of this water came from the Gila River and not from the main Colorado. The Gila River which joins the Colorado just above Yuma, Arizona, has a large drainage area in southwestern Arizona where the annual rainfall usually is about 2 1/2 or 3 inches, but which comes in the form of cloudbursts, and which already has produced two of the largest floods of record in the lower Colorado River. II Because the development of irrigation in both the United States and Mexico was considered important by tl18 proponents and opponents of the Treaty, Mr. Lawson presented some background information on the subject beginning on page 76: "IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT "At the beginning of this century there were irrigated in the upper basin in the United States about 530,000 acres of land and in the lower basin about 205,000 acres, most of this from the Gila River-in-New-lVte'Kie0-anEl-AFi.zona-.wj.th-a-sma-U-aer-eag-e-in-the-Palo Verde area in California. By 1940 these uses had expanded so that in that year about 1,312,000 acres were being irrigated in the upper basin and about 1,323,000 acres in the lower basin in the United States and 190,000 acres in Mexico. "Irrigation development in MexIco and in the Imperial Valley in California started with the construction by the California Develop- ment Co. of the Imperial canal system between 1896 and 1901. The Alamo canal heads in the United States a short distance above the upper international boundary, and proceeds through Mexican terri- tory about 43 miles, recrossing the boundary into California in the vicinity of Calexico. Difficulties were experienced because of the canal passing through Mexican territory, and in order to operate in that country a Mexican subsidiary of the California Development Co. was organized and was granted the right by the Mexican Govern- ment, by contract dated May 17, 1904, to carry through the Alamo -10- - --