OPERATIONS IN CALIFORNIA IN 1873. 413 



constructing the wheel, it was finally pronounced complete, and our 

 whole camp assembled to see it lowered into the water. To say that we 

 were breathless with excitement was no exaggeration. Our suspense 

 cannot be overdrawn. The situation, as it presented itself to ourminds, 

 was simply this: if the wheel worked well, our efforts to obtain salmon- 

 eggs would be a success ; if the wheel did not work, our whole expedition 

 would be a failure. No wonder we watched the lowering of the wheel 

 with absorbing interest. Our disappointment and dismay can hardly 

 be exaggerated, then, when we perceived the wheel, having reached its 

 resting-place, give a convulsive start, revolve perhaps a third of the 

 way around its axis, utter a groan, and stop entirely. There was not 

 power enough to lift the buckets of water. We then went to work to 

 throw out a wing-dam on the river-side of the wheel, about 30 feet in 

 length and at an angle of nearly 45° with the river-current. This was 

 built by "making fast one end of a large log to the outer pier and the 

 other end to a point on the shore above by means of a cable, and filling 

 in underneath the log with rocks and brush. To obtain the log was at 

 first quite a problem, for the dam required one that our whole force 

 could not move. We overcame this difficulty by going half a mile 

 or so up the river and felling a large tree into the current. This 

 as it lay in the river, we sawed into the requisite length, and then, with 

 a good deal of labor and no little excitement and danger, towed down 

 through the intervening rapids to the wheel. This dam increased 

 the force of the water against the paddles very materially To gain still 

 more power, we cleared out the channel below the wheel by exploding 

 giant-powder in the obstructing rocks. 



Everything being again ready, the wheel was once more lowered 

 A more vigorous start, a somewhat longer revolution, another groan, 

 and another entire stoppage was the result. Not a drop of water was 

 raised up to the flume. 



We were, however, very near the fulfillment of our hopes. We now 

 had a bucket at every paddle, making sixteen in all. The wheel was 

 required, therefore, to raise 16 buckets : 1G times 4£ gallons, or 72 

 gallons (720 pounds) at every revolution. There was evidently not 

 power enough for that amount of work. So, to obviate this difficulty, 

 v/e knocked off every other bucket, leaving eight only. The next time 

 the wheel was lowered it creaked and groaned as the buckets filled, but 

 revolved entirely around, and continued to do so without interruption, 

 with a motion that seemed to our gratified eyes really majestic. Our 

 watches showed that it made three revolutions a minute, raising 108 

 gallons in that time, or 6,480 gallons an hour. The problem of obtain- 

 ing hatching-water was solved, and our minds were relieved of a great 

 suspense and anxiety. The working of the wheel was from this time to 

 the end a perfect success. The river was fed by the steadily-melting 

 snows of Mount Shasta, so that it never fell, and, as no rains occur at 

 that season in California, it never rose. The wheel revolved regularly, 



