But the hidden wealth of this great region, so long known as the "Great American Desert," is by no means confined to its storehouses of gold, silver, and copper. Here, there, and almost everywhere are areas that lack but one element to make them the most productive regions of the world, and that one element is water. The conquest of the Colorado desert is not the first instance of desert land reclamation in the United States, but it is certainly one of the marvels of the world's history. A more pronounced and inhospitable desert never existed; and, in proportion to the area reclaimed, it is doubtful if one can find greater productivity than the lands that constitute Imperial Valley. Let us take a glance at nature's work in this region. Long before the Mississippi was born the Colorado was an ancient river and it formerly flowed through a fertile valley. During countless ages it has stripped from the plateau and carried into the Gulf of California a deposit of rock waste from the land surface of its basin many feet deep, and abraded billions of tons of material from its channel. All this silt and detritus have served to fill up the northern part of the gulf, the result of the deposit being an immense land area. At length a great bar was formed across the northern part of the gulf, making a sort of inland sea. Then the hot climate caused the water to evaporate, while from time to time the Colorado overflowed its banks, spreading a rich sediment over the former sea-bed. Various parts of this depression, which, like Palestine, lie below the sea-level, are known as Salton, Coahuilla, and Imperial Valleys. The lowest part, now filled with water, is usually called the Salton Sea. The whole of this region is comprehended under the name of Colorado Desert. In 1900 a company was formed to reclaim that part of the desert included in Imperial Valley, by taking water out of the Colorado River a few miles below the boundary between California and Mexico. A main canal, called the Imperial Canal, one hundred miles long, seventy feet wide, and eight feet deep carries water from the Colorado to Imperial Valley, where it is distributed by hundreds of smaller canals. The irrigation facilities are already sufficient to water more than one hundred thousand acres. This region, rightly named the hot-house of America, produces marvellous crops of hay, grain, and fruits; it is an ideal place for raising live-stock and poultry as well. Some of this land already brings into its owners from three hundred dollars to seven hundred dollars yearly income per acre, and because of its wonderful fertility it is likened to the valley of the Nile.