New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-29


co,npleta ring of light around the dark moon. Int
Map indicates where the ring OF light is of longest
'--.rs..- '.-.-s-,
gallons every 81 hours or more than i,ooo'ooo
gallons every hour. WHO can imagine the immense
weight of $4,000, 600 gallons OF water falling
distance OF 10 feet
But where docs this immense quantity OF water
come from Aye, there 5 the rub The Company
working tho mines intend shortly to have SIX pipes
at work ght and day on tho gravel banks, ana yet
they will not use the half nor the quarter or the
water they control The valleys or California par
ticularly the Valley of the American and the Sacra-
mento Valley, are beyond comparison III richness
and in fruit, especially the most productive in
tbe world. Water, however, for irrigation is
INDISPENSABLE The land is as barren
as . desert without water. 1t viii hardly produce
eage-br.sh and rabbits The American river iur-
nished the necessary wafer for many miles OF Its
valley. But under and by provisions oil the law,
either special general. the Company referred 10
have bought up the land and seized every stream OF
water flowing down the valley for distance OF over
20 miles TO gain their object they have even gone
40 miles east of Ilacerville, up the mountains ana
made dam to divert the course of the present South
Fork from is regular channel into their canal, mt an
elevation of Q 800 feet above Placeryic, and about
300 feet above San Francisco. They have built
d
larger than most canals-30 miles in length, feet
on the bottom Ii feet on top, and 6ls feet in depth,
m average grade OF four feet to the mile, around
mountains. ovcr gulches, through quarres and along
precpiccs in order TO bring the water to their mine
and take Il away from the fruit growers in the val
leys Th5 canal delivers the water at place called
Sportsmen'5 Hall, where it is thrown into other
cailons and from them into othcrditchcSand fumes.
After completing the main trunk the Company viii
have AZ miles of bitches humcs and water COURSES.
IRRGATING DIrCHES OF THE COMPANY.
The Watersheds which they drain 10 supply their
re.eryors and bitches cover an extent of 80 square
mics. The inhabitants i'll the lower county cannot
get barrel OF wafer without buying it OF tins Com
panv at the rate Of 10 cents inch. IN inch OF
water "a measured by miners, is the quantity that
can be delivered through an oriice of ono square
inch under pressure of inches for 10 hours. On
the summit of the Sierra Ncvadas is cluster of
beautiful lakes, from 30 to - miles from Placerye.
More beautiful bodies of water were never seen by
man. and their location is AS picturesque as poet
could imagine. They embrace Silver Lake, gig
mile. long and l mile wido Red Lake, COW
eripg an area Of five miles. Echo Lake and slippery
Ford Lake all about of size. Silver Lake has been
already damned 10 % hight Of 20 feet, and tunnels
now making to dram Echo Lake. Tho company esti-
mate that when the Improvements now making are
finished they viii have storage capacity OF not
less than 70 miles square and 90 feet deep. They
are even threat wing to dry up the beautiful Lake
Tahoe. and are even now engaged III d,vertln5, as
above stated Echo Lake, by tunnel, and thus rob-
bing Tahoe Of one OF its moss valuable sources The
lakes referred to from 12OO to 1900 feet above
Lake Tahoe, and although the praises of that Lake
have been sounded until all the mnstrels are hoarse,
nobody who has net seen it from the top Of the
\ lot ito Inavr ftaa
and its inspirations The valley of the Yosemite,
viewed from Inspiration Point, az ! saw it seven
years ago. is commonplace in comparison. The
summit at this point is reached through Johnson's
Pass few miles to the north of the celebrated FIRE.
mont Pass. -
The country through which the bitches Of the
Company pass is thick with very valuable timber,
and the only way to get this tinber 10 market is to
saw it at the Companys mills and float it down their
bitches. The Government at present owns most of
the adjacent land, and il sn0t improbable that the
Company will seize the timber as they have seized
the water The Companys bitches extend TO within
a hundred miles of San Francisco, and in the
country traversed there is no water to be had ex-
cent through the bitches; not bunch OF grapes,
not pound of pears, not a peck of peaches,
not dozen figs, not bushel of apples
can be raised without their consent Their
irritating bitches cover the whole country
and tho fruit growers have to pay the fiddler
whether they dance not. so profitable is the fur
nishng of water at 10 cents an inch that the Com
pany are not using. for themselves, sufficient water
to work their hydraulic mines TO their full capacity,
although las ought to have said beforc) the water.
after doing its work in the mines, is conveyed down
in bitches and afterward sold to the farmers for rr
CATION There are several quartz mills on the lines
of the bitches, but not one of them can work with
ont the water of the " I'll Dorado Water and Deep
Gravel Mining Company" Tire essence of the whole
subject is this The whole country for more than q
hundred miles is in the power of this monstrous mo-
nopoly, and the worst of it is they have "a legal
standing and there is no redres. for the people.
The canal, from the summit OF the mountain, at
an average fall Of four feet TO the me it must be
confessed is wonderful tribute to the skill Of Mr..
Bishop, the engineer. If half his ability had been
honestly exercised in building the Pacific Railroad,
San Francisco woald not be to-day, by way of Dem
Yer, 3,f77 miles from New-York City. He has now
about 800 laborcrs employed finishing the bitches,
and before Winter sets in he hopes To have the
water in all of the bitches. The company prefer
Chinese labor to that of Irishmcn. Welshmcn or
Germans They pay the Chinese $50 and S2S o