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Aug. 5. Packed my traps & blanket on the saddle & started down the creek horseback to do some collecting as far out on the desert as possible below the end of Birch Creek. Followed down Birch Cr. about 25 miles and stopped at the lowest ranch, Mr. J. R. Richard's, where the last of the water of the creek is used for irrigation. 
At our camp just below the big springs & meadows in which the creek rises, it is a stream 20 feet wide & a foot deep with a steep descent & very rapid. The water is cold & like [[strikethrough]] chr [[/strikethrough]] crystal. It is used for irrigating [[strikethrough]] by [[/strikethrough]] at 8 ranches & all used. At some time it has evidently run into the sink of the Big Last River, 5 miles below Richard's ranch before the ditches were taken out to water fields. Now it does not run below the ranch, though an old channel extends to the sink.
Betula occidentalis & populus tremuloides & willows grow along the creek banks from our camp down to end of water. The rest of the valley is covered with Artemisia tridentata & its associates. Killed & skinned a big Badger on the way down & hid the skin & skull in the brush to get on my way back.