Congress subsequently made a grant of land included in the slip to the
"Village of Yuma," so that it is a mere question of jurisdiction, not
involving the validity of any titles. The question of jurisdiction still
remains unsettled, as it requires both an Act of Congress and Act of the
State Legislature to change the boundaries of a sovereign State.

The town-site of Yuma has grown slowly, but there will be a town there
as long as the two rivers flow. The Southern Pacific Railroad was
completed years ago, and forms the great artery of commerce. Immigration
enterprises of great magnitude have been undertaken with the waters of
the Colorado River. The river washes fully three hundred thousand square
miles, and furnishes a water power in the cataracts of the Grand Cañon
only second to Niagara.

"At Yuma, on the Colorado River, the only attempt at irrigation so far
made is by pumping works, which raise the water from the river and
convey it in pipes to the lands to be watered. While thus far only a
limited area is watered by this method, the results are satisfactory,
and the expense no greater than in many of the pipe systems of
California.

"But for the magnitude, scope, and the boldness of its purpose, the
project to irrigate the great Colorado Desert is without a parallel in
the arid West, if in the world.

"This undertaking contemplates the construction of gravity canals from a
point in the Colorado River, several miles above Yuma, and the
conducting of the waters of this river over an arid waste, that, while
forbidding in appearance, is known to be capable of great fertility. One
interesting feature of this plan to reclaim the desert is found in the