The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-05-08

the water work of herding will NJ
longer be necessary, except to keel
out such stock from the watering
place as might drift in to make free
use of the water.
This would give the stock better
water than they can get in the canals
it would be in the heart of the best
range, surrounded by grass in all di
rections, and the stock would be In
| fine condition at the end of the sea.
son. The settlers would be relieved
of the stock hanging about theil
fences and canals, and there would
be no waste of energy between con-
tending factions. If the man In
charge of the pumping plant cared to
do so he could develop little dry
farm or orchard, saturating the
ground from his pumping plant dur
ing the spring and fall when the
water was not needed for the stock,
and all this would aid in paying or
reducing the cost of maintenance of
the plant. If one or two wells were
not sufficient to accommodate the ter
ritory, several could be drilled at In
tervals of few miles SO that all the
range would be available.
The depth of the wells drilled on
the dry farms is from 1870 to 200
feet, and 1t is only matter of week
or two to sink one. They use Key
stone Drill, and under favorable con-
ditions have sunk 35 feet in a day
through lava rock.
Strange Phenomina.
Some new light has been thrown
on the formation underlying the
Snake river plains by the work of the
drillers of the Aberdeen tract with
in the past year. 1t has always
been said and generally accepted
that the waters of Lost river and
other streams that sink on the north
and west side of the plain pass under
ground to the southwark and find
their way into Snake river, thus feed
ing the stream and keeping fine cat
aracts at American Falls and other
places even after the stream had been
depleted by irrigation above. How
ever, this theory has always been
doubted by many people who want to
be shown the proofs.
The great lava walls along Snake
river, with water pouring from
thousands of openings, gives rise to
the question, Where does the water
come from?' and in drilling these
wells on the plain, water is encoun-
tered in the apparently solid rock at
depths varying from 43 to, 200 feet,
to what part of the plain
they drilled in. They usually drill
an eight-inch hole down to where
they encounter rock and then six
inch hole down about 25 feet into
the part of the rock containing the
water. That gives reservoir and
large drainage tube to draw from.
In many cases, the drill breaks
into cavern or river three
or four feet in depth, and this seems
full of running water. If they drill
a hole in the bed of this stream 1t
fills with sand when the
drill is taken out, but there is no
occasion to sink below the river bed,
for the water supply of the subter-
ranean river is abundant. In some
places this aperature has been found
to be filed with sand but to have
very little water in it, and when they
punch hole through 1t and raise
the drill, it caves in and fills up.
In some places the rock is so
coarse and full of pours and crevices,
hat the water passing carries all the |
,hinc from tha drill away and keans |
he hole clear.
In prehistoric times there must
have been a network of streams
lowing from the Lost river side tow
ards the present course Of Snake
liver, and when the great eruption
,ame that spread lava all over the
plain, the water courses were to a
great extent kept open under the
mass.