The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-07-03

is miles distant from the railroad; one
of them the gorge in which the cliff
jewellers of a prehistoric age lived.
One of the canyons is about GOO feet
wide at its mouth, and the other about
300, but the walls CT the latter are
more precipitous-they are almost per-
pendicular-the decline from the noun
tain is not so sharp and consequently
1t will hold nearly if not quite as much
water.
SUPPLIES FOR is MONTHS.
James Dun, chief engineer of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe who
prepared the plans, and under whose
supervision the dams will be con-
structed, estimates that each will hold
50,000,000 gallons of water-enough for
the company's use along the Arizona
division for IS months, including losses
by evaporation and seepage.
The dams will be 10 feet high, con-
structed of sandstone quarried nearby
and laid in Portland cement. The
outer face of the masonry will be in
the form of the letter S, thus conform
ing to the natural fall of water from
such height and avoiding the wear
and tear of sudden precipitation.
Between the two dams of masonry,
which will be a long distance apart,
will be constructed a smaller dam of
iron. The cost of this dam will be
much less in proportion than the stone
reservoirs. but it will not last nearly
so long, and is to be put in as a COM
parative experiment.
The stone reservoirs will cost about
S290,000 The interest on this sum is
about SO 1-3 per cent of the present
cost of hauling the water to the tanks
which they Will supply. The water
will be piped from the great reservoirs
to the tanks on the line of the road.
President Ripley proposes also to ex-
pertinent little in irrigation. Other
parts of Arizona have been made pro-
ductive by this system and as the
reservoirs will hold more than a years
supply of water for the uses of the
railroad, a portion can be spared to
experiment in agriculture, and if it
should prove successful its value would
be incalculable.
experiment which may result in a dis
covery of even greater value. In the
valleys and on the mountain sides
where the dams are to be constructed
are deposits of volcanic cinders, sim
liar in color and apparently in in
gradients to the lava cinders from
Mount Vesuvius, from which was
manufactured the cement in which
was laid the masonry of the Coliseum,
aqueducts and viaducts of Rome, which
have withstood the ravages of time for
more than 1000 years.
Mr.. Dun has sent 20 barrels of the
Arizona cinders to Denmark, where the
best Portland cement in the world is
made. This lot will be tried in the
manufacture of cement, and if it should
prove valuable, works will be estao-
lished in Arizona. Chemists of the
company will also experiment with ten
barrels of the cinders at Topeka. A
heavy portion of the expense, on ac-
count of long transportation by sea
and rail, of the construction of the
stone reservoirs in Arizona will be the
Portland cement, which goes from Bel
GUM by sea to Galveston, and thence
by rail to the place of use. If equally
good cement can be manufactured on
the ground, the expense of construc-
ton will be cheapened 80 per cent or
more.
Lantry & Co. already have begun the
work of excavation, which will require
some time, and it will not be until
or possibly later, that the
of masonry will be laid.
In order to insure against breaks of
the dam by the enormous pressure of
&c. 100000 gallons of water it will be
necessary to set the masonry deep into |
the primary formation and far into the |
sides of the mountain. This done, the |
bottom and sides of the reservoirs will |
be plastered with cement Even then |
the water will eXude more or less, but |
the dam will not break.