JUno 24, 193. 
 
 
Mr. Sydney nwlot, 
   Aerioan soolety of CiTil   nginees, 
     33 West 30th 8treet, 
        New York, N.Y. 
 
 Dear Mr. Wilmot: 
 
            In two of the letters whieh were published regarding my article

 allusions were made to the Coloado River and its sedintatioa, drawing con-

 clusion, that this stream had alws been as heavily sedimented as it is at

 present, 
 
            I hav* found startling proof to the ontrary in the personal narra-

 tive of Iemos M. Pattie, which oeeupies the entire Volume 18 of 'isrly Western

 Travels", edited by Reuben G, hwAites, LL.D., historian end seoretary
of the 
 State historical Sooiety of Wisconsin, 1886-1915, and the author of twonty-fowx

 listed works on early Amerlcan history, including twunty-siz volumes of
"Early 
 Western Travels" which contain the diaries f the earliest explorers.
There 
 appear two allusions to the Coloreao River. Pattie, according to Thunites,

 ws a noted man in his day.   lie narrative *overs 1824-1830, and Thweites

 states that Pattie was the first white man to explore the Coloredo River.

 
           He descended the Gila, which he spelled "Helay in 1825, reachlng

the junction of the Colorado on the 26th of FebruaLry 1*M, Pattie statet
that 
"At 12 we started up the Rod River (Colorado; Thwalits) whiih is between
800 
and 300 yards wide, a deep, bold stream, an the water at this point is entirely

The bottoms are a mile in general width. The timber of the bottoms is 
v      ea  and the grass rank and high,.   (p,131-132, Yol. 18, Early Westorn

Travels, uhites.) From this point the paty ascended the Coliado and went

entirely around the Grand Canyon upon the plateau. On April 10th he states;

"Once mre   ould reach the beaks of the river." On April 15th he
states, "on 
the, 15th we returned to the banks of Rled River which is here a clear beautiful

 
 
           To elaia, as some of your readers apparently believe, that the

Colorado River has not increased its silt burden by the enormous recent destine-

tive erosion, notably on the Sea Xuan and its tributaries, and to justify
this 
conclusion by a statement that the earliest evidence shows that the Colorado

River always carred an ezoessive load of silt is squarely refuted by this
most 
important, earliest of all historic descriptions of this river by 'wrloan.
Mr. 
Pattie's deseciption or the Holay (Gila) Biver is equally convincing and
*on- 
fir   historical knowledge as to the original condition of this stream. Theas

references can be found on page 87 of this volume and following, 
 
           Again, 1 wish to euphasi2 the importance of a correet presentation

of this subjct and of the great danger to the engineering profession if they

allow themselves to be deceived and misinformed on the effects of erosion
and 
the relation between the terrific increase of this process since the white