7040

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7040
• Author: Miller, R. R.
• Title: Man and the Changing Fish Fauna of the American Southwest
• USFW Year: 1961
• USFW - Doc Type: Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters
• Copyright Material: YES

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372 Robert Rush Miller
Lon Beach, although the last 10 miles o A rrits oyo channel o
ne
were Pacific near g Angeles by
normally dry. The river is joined in Los orth of Pasadena
on the mountain slopes n. irrigation began as
rising
ur commence
Utilization of the waters of ose did not
these rivers for early as 1821 but extensive use for that P r aters of the mountain
until the 1880'x. Before the roomPtyan, sank the w into the alluvial Plains,
l
low ed rainfall. Be-
except streams feedi during n pg these rivers s p P eat and prolong
eriods of unusually grthe rivers reappeared as peren-
nial headwater region, however, envious barrier like the
surface flows wherever there was an imp nd in
bedrock obstructions in the and 1905, however, p
Santa Ai a875 River near Riverside and in ams was Santa Ana Canyon. Between about appropriated for
tally all of the normal flw mof these stre oist lands about San Bernardino, nu-
irrigation purposes. Extensive as also disappeared as the water sup-
merous springs, and large cieneg lams and artesian wells. At a
ply was drained away by pumping P near Pomona), San
time preceding the settlement of San Jose vwaters (rising as springs in
disappeared
Jose Creek was a summer stream fed by
(Mendenhall)
the old Palomares Cieng aoffter its normal water settlement the ciene source ga er (Mdicent of the
and the valley was deprived final times probably 50 to 75 p
1908, p. 55). In aborig or rivers afforded per-
stream courses within the basins sus
manent eV ry Probably
habitats for aquatic org ittent most of the year. At
of all 3 rivers were normally dry or interm
resent, the perennial surface flow of these streams has been reduc
present,
to a fraction of what it was in 1 ? the Rio Grande had a
Upper Rio Grande: % the early lWart, southward about
pa
order
rather small but permanent flow in its upper
from there to the
of Albuquerque; but Texas brd the
to the vicinity
of below
it often went dry in years no rdescribedaas essent ally a
close of the dry season. The rive Lee, 1907,
subject to great and sudden floods
storm-water stream, important tributary from the west, already had
p. 7). Rio Puerco, an the period from 1846 to 1877, with
developed local gullies during Antevs, 1952, p• 379) .
trenches up to 30 feet deep and 100 feet wide
That the upper Rio o Grande was once larger
taken near Albuquerque
flow is indicated by the record of a s Of
blue in the 1870's and the identification of $ etemainst of Santa Feswhich
(Cycleptus elongatus) from an Indian
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