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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />(,.',) <br />00 <br />,r\"':,1 <br />o <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />CHAPTER III <br /> <br />BACKGROUND PROFILE OF BASIN CHARACTERISTICS <br /> <br />THE NATURAL PHYSICAL SETTING <br /> <br />The natural physical setting of the Colorado River Basin is best <br /> <br />characterized by the word diversity. The descriptions of Powell (l96l, <br /> <br />p. 29), as he explored the Colorado River and its canyons, eloquently <br /> <br />depict the intimate relation of the river to the lands from which its flows <br /> <br />arise: <br /> <br />"All winter long snow falls on its mountain- crested rim, <br />filling the gorges, half burying the forests, and covering <br />the crags and peaks with a mantle woven by the winds <br />from the waves of the sea. When the summer sun comes <br />this snow melts and tumbles down the mountain sides in <br />millions of cascades. A million cascade brooks unite to <br />form a thousand torrent creeks; a thousand torrent creeks <br />unite to form half a hundred rivers beset with cataracts; <br />half a hundred roaring rivers unite to form the Colorado. <br />Consider the action of one of these streams. Its <br />source is in the mountains, where the snows fall; its <br />course, through the arid plains. Now, if at the river's <br />flood storms.were falling on the plains, its channel would <br />be cut but little faster than the adjacent country would be <br />washed, and the general level would thus be preserved; <br />but under the conditions here mentioned, the river con- <br />tinually deepens its beds; so all the streams cut deeper <br />and still deeper, until their banks are towering cliffs of <br />solid rock. <br />For more than a thousand miles along its cour se <br />the Colorado has cut for itself such a canyon. " <br /> <br />,-,,,", <br />