438 Transactions op the 



THE KING'S RIVER AND SAN JOAQUIN COMPANY'S CANAL. 



The most extensive and important of these enterprises j - et put under 

 construction — a canal for navigation, as well as to supply water for irri- 

 gation — remains to be described. The San Joaquin River comes down 

 from the Sierra Nevadas in a westerly course, and at a point a few miles 

 above (south of) Firebaugh's Ferry makes a bend to the northward. 

 The drainage of the great territory which empties into Tulare Lake as 

 a reservoir, comes down thence northwardly during the period of over- 

 flow, through a line of main sloughs, and empties iuio the San Joaquin at 

 this bend. The channel of this overflow, at the point where it empties 

 into the river, known as Fresno Slough, always contains water, and 

 during the season of high water is navigable to its head. Between the 

 head of Fresno Slough and Tulare Lake are two other sections of deep 

 channel, known as Buena Vista and Pish Slough. These, how ever, do 

 not extend to the lake. If, now, the three isthmuses between Fresno, 

 Buena Vista, and Fish Sloughs and the lake be cut through, a navigable 

 channel becomes established from Kern County, at the southern cud of 

 Tulare Lake, to the junction of Fresno Slough with the San Joaquin 

 Liver above Firebaugh's Ferry. Were'the navigation of the San Joaquin 

 permanent to this point, navigation would thus be opened from near 

 Bakersfield, and embracing the magnificent lands known as the Tom 

 Creek country, to the Bay of San Francisco. But at its lowest stages 

 the upper San Joaquin is not navigable, the present hetd of permanent 

 navigation being at Moore's Landing, near the crossing of the Western 

 Pacific Railroad. To complete the chain of navigation outward from 

 Tulare Lake, it becomes necessary, therefore, to construct a navigable 

 canal from the mouth of Fresno Slough to Moore's Landing. This is 

 the canal which the San Joaquin and King's Liver Canal Company have 

 now under construction, and of which a large section is already com- 

 pleted. There still remains a section of some seventy miles to construct 

 between the present lower end of the canal near Kreyeuhagen's, at Los 

 Banos Creek, and Moore's Landing. 



In the San Joaquin River, near the mouth of Fresno Slough, is an 

 island which divides the stream into two unequal portions — the western 

 one being the smaller. From this smaller channel the canal lakes its 

 water by means of a dam of admirable construction. Across the main 

 channel on the east side of the island a brush dam is thrown in order to 

 maintain a full volume of water in the lesser channel. The canal dam 

 consists of two rows of sheet piling, the space between them filled in 

 and planked over. The piles are lour inches thick. Upon this main 

 dam as a foundation is erected a frame carrying gates which move up 

 and down, the water flowing over their upper edges. Thus, when the 

 channel is running full, by lowering the gates the entire volume of water 

 is allowed to flow freely over the dam. As the quantity of water dimin- 

 ishes, the gates are gradually raised, maintaining the surface of the 

 water behind them at a uniform level. The construction of this dam, 

 like that of the Fresno Canal, was carried on last Winter at a time when 

 the streams were running full, and involved some nice exhibitions of 

 engineering skill. As an example of the class of devices resorted to in 

 battling with the swollen torrent which opposed every portion of the 

 work, one operation ma}' be described. Alter the upper row of sheet 

 piling had been driven the water boiled through between the piles, as 

 well as over them, with such violence as to carry oil' the filling between 



