Part L] Fish Ponds. 31 



will open up some of the lower strata of the ground that will 

 allow the water that finds its way between them to seep away 

 from the pond under the dam. Dirt for building the embank- 

 ments should so far as possible be taken from the bottom of 

 the pond itself while it is being shaped, or from grounds and 

 adjoining places above the dam. 



I also noticed in the neighborhood of Medicine Lodge another 

 mistake that is sometimes made when dams are placed across 

 small creeks, sloughs or ravines. This mistake is in the way 

 the foundation of the dam was constructed. Some three or 

 four dams were examined where brush had been thrown into 

 wet, boggy places so that teams could get over the ground with 

 scrapers. In another place poles and even logs had been used 

 to make a sort of corduroy road for the team to travel over. 

 Dirt had been hauled, scraped and tramped into and onto these 

 artificially constructed foundations, but in every instance 

 where these pole and brushlike roadway foundations had been 

 used the water was either slowly seeping through them or was 

 flowing in perceptible springlike rivulets. 



THE ELLIS-HOUCHIN PONDS. 



A series of private ponds about eight miles north of Med- 

 icine Lodge were especially examined. They had been con- 

 structed by Judge C. W. Ellis and Mr. A. M. Houchin, among 

 the hills and smaller valleys that go to make up a considerable 

 portion of that picturesque locality. As these ponds seemed 

 to be well constructed and were built at a very reasonable cost, 

 it might be well to give some account of one or two of them as 

 examples of what can be done by one or two men with one or 

 two teams and one or two plows and scrapers. 



These ponds are so located that they catch a good supply of 

 surface water, but some of them are also fed by springs of 

 greater or less strength. The dams are constructed of earth 

 scraped from adjoining banks or from the basin of the pond 

 while it is being shaped. 



An Economical Pond. 



One pond put in by Judge Ellis and Mr. Houchin that looked 

 particularly common-sense and practical in its general make- 

 up, I desire to describe somewhat in detail. Its manner of con- 

 struction and cost may serve as a guide in some respects for 

 others who contemplate building ponds where circumstances 

 and conditions are somewhat similar. 



The dam that holds the water in this particular pond is 330 

 feet long. It is 12 feet wide on top and 16 feet high in its 

 greatest depth; and for a distance of 100 feet where the deep- 

 est and greatest fill had been made, the average height is about 

 12 feet. A rather deep ravine and draw had been dammed. 

 It held a body of water with a surface area of from two and 

 one-half to three acres, varying in depth from 1 to 12 feet. 



