ndy gulches and deltas a few minutes
after their first boisterous appearance. The principal mountain chains,
trending nearly north and south, parallel with the Sierra and the
Wahsatch, receive a good deal of snow during winter, but no great
masses are stored up as fountains for large perennial streams capable
of irrigating considerable areas. Most of it is melted before the end
of May and absorbed by moraines and gravelly taluses, which send forth
small rills that slip quietly down the upper canyons through narrow
strips of flowery verdure, most of them sinking and vanishing before
they reach the base of their fountain ranges. Perhaps not one in ten
of the whole number flow out into the open plains, not a single drop
reaches the sea, and only a few are large enough to irrigate more than
one farm of moderate size.

It is upon these small outflowing rills that most of the Nevada ranches
are located, lying countersunk beneath the general level, just where the
mountains meet the plains, at an average elevation of five thousand feet
above sea level. All the cereals and garden vegetables thrive here,
and yield bountiful crops. Fruit, however, has been, as yet, grown
successfully in only a few specially favored spots.

Another distinct class of ranches are found sparsely distributed along
the lowest portions of the plains, where the ground is kept moist by
springs, or by narrow threads of moving water called rivers, fed by
some one or more of the most vigorous of the mountain rills that have
succeeded in making their escape from the mountains. These are mostly
devoted to the growth of wild hay, though in some the natural meadow
grasses and sedges have been supplemented by timothy and alfalfa; and
where the soil is not too strongly impregnated with salts, some grain
is raised. Reese River Valley, Big Smoky Valley, and White River Valley
offer fair illustrations of this class. As compared with the foothill
ranches, they are larger and less inconspicuous, as they lie in the
wide, unshadowed levels of the plains--wavy-edged flecks of green in a
wilderness of gray.

Still another class equally well defined, both as to distribution and
as to products, is restricted to that portion of western Nevada and the
eastern border of California which lies within the redeeming influences
of California waters. Three of the Sierra rivers descend from their icy
fountains into the desert like angels of mercy to bless Nevada. These
are the Walke