The Imperial press., 1905-09-23

the United States. Here Mir. Martin was boring for bed rock and had found it at depth of only fourteen feet. He also found an entire absence of quick sand in the soil covering the bedrock, it being blue clay of the very stiffest consistency.
 He was very enthusiastic over the proposition of putting in large headgates at this point. declaring that conditions could not be more advantageous. From him we learned that the plans for these gates at this point have already been drawn, and that It is the purpose of the company to proceed with their cOnstruc- tiOn without delay. We learned later that Mr. Martin will have charge of the work and that it will probably take year to complete it. When completed it will be as solid as Gibralter, built of cement and steel and with the everlast- ing bedrock for foundation. We did not learn the size this gate will be nor any of the details of it's plans, but there's no doubt whatever that it can besput in It this place and made to control the water with absolute certainty and secur- ity.
 Proceeding on to the camp we found Mir. Gaines, who had just come up the Imperial canal in the gasoline boat. We laid our case before him and found he had not been informed of our coming and had consequently not arranged for us to make the trip to the lower intake where the matters of greatest moment are to be seen. However, as he had two or three hours business with the Mexican custom officer at the boundary arranging for passing the barge load of lumber, piling and materials that Cap tain Mellen was loading at Yuma for use on the lower headgate, he sent Us down the canal to the place we wanted to visit in the gasoline launch.
 It will De remembered that the Im- perial canal really heads just below the
 
 generally southwestern direction for about four miles, when it joins the great channel that has been washed by the turning of the entire river through the lower intake. This canal is about 80 10 100 feet wide and was dug with the dip- per dredge, and has not been washed out or changed materially byAhe floods.
 It is a beautiful stream, running along with an even current between willow lined banks. The engineer of the launch told us that it was much easier to run the boat in the canal than in the river and that they always travelled in the canal. We made the four miles from Hanlons down to the lower intake channel in about thirty minutes which is "going some" for a chugboat Arriving there we crossed the channel and landed on the south side where the camp is located. Here we met Mir. Best, who has charge of the work at this place under Mir. Gaines.
 Looking around for results, one can not but feel disappointed in that so little of tangible progress is visible to the naked eye. However when we come to figure up what has been done in the seven weeks since we visited this place before and number of very essential things that had to be done first and which necessarily would con- sume time have been done. The great dipper dredger had to be overhauled and put ill repair before the excaStion work could begin. This was done and the machine set to work on the first plan, that of putting in headgate and then turning the water through it. While working on this, the river declined so that the banks where the dredge was digging got to be twelve feet high. The soil was soft and of quicksand nature so, with the high banks, the quicksand and the soil, the crane of the dredge