DIVISION EIGHT — SCIENCE. 56 1 



JUDGE EATON ON PASADENA'S WATER SUPPLY. 



About the year 1882 I ran a series of levels around that section of the 

 San Pasqual ranch embraced between Columbia and Buena Vista streets in 

 South Pasadena, extending the survey as far east as the waters supplying 

 Marengo Rancho (Raymond creek). Half a dozen wells had been sunk 

 over this territory ; and taking their depth and comparing the height of the 

 water in them with the levels of the natural outlets, the theory of there 

 being a regular basin of water underlying the plain above was confirmed. 

 A further survey demonstrated the fact that some four acres of my home- 

 place was below the level of the surface of the water in the basin ; but there 

 was no natural outlet for it on my premises ; so I determined to tap the hill 

 with a tunnel. Before commencing this work, however, I sank a prospect- 

 ing shaft at the top of the bench, on my extreme north line, in order to be 

 sure and get on the inside of the supposed sandstone rim of the San Pas- 

 qual basin which our state geologist, Prof. J. D. Whitney, had mentioned to 

 B. D. Wilson as his explanation of the peculiar conditions of water supply 

 existing here, and in which I fully believed at that time. My surveys in- 

 dicated the level of the water in the basin to be about forty feet below the 

 surface of the ground at that point, and, sure enough, at that depth we en- 

 countered it. I felt satisfied then that the Professor's theory was correct ; 

 and running levels down the hill to a point corresponding with the bottom 

 of the shaft, I commenced tunneling. I had driven the tunnel a distance of 

 ninety-one feet under the hill, and as vet encountered no sandstone or ledge 

 of any kind, but had observed that the floor of the tunnel was very moist, 

 as if water were near — in fact, we were only four inches above the surface 

 of the water in the basin. But where was the rim of sandstone? Follow- 

 ing back, we found upon examination water at the same depth up to a point 

 thirty-five feet from the mouth of the tunnel. Here then must be the point 

 of interception. Upon a critical examination a stratum about twenty inches 

 in thickness, of very compact clay, was found to have been pierced, and 

 outside of this no water could be found. So that constituted the dam.'-i" A 

 dozen tunnels have been driven into this same bench east of this point 

 since, and in every instance the moment this stratum was passed, water was 

 found. Where Pasadena is there was at some period in the past an im- 

 mense depression. In truth, I believe there must have been at least two, if 

 not three, distinct basins lying parallel with the Sierra Madre range of 

 mountains. The first had for its boundaries on the west the country lying 

 along the Arroyo Seco, where the Canyada ranch is, and on the south by a 

 line drawn in an easterly direction from the Devil's Gate. The second 

 basin was bounded on the south by a line drawn from the Orange Grove 

 Avenue reservoir, also in an easterly direction. The third probably com- 

 prised the section now embraced between Colorado and Columbia streets. 



*Prof. Whitney caught the idea of a great geological water basiu north of Mr. Wilson's spring- 

 bearing line ot bluffs. This was iu 1861. No borings had at that time been made to detect the hidden 

 local bed of boulder-clay, hence from surface indications he naturally supposed the barrier rim to be a 

 sandstone formation. And he did not recognize the signs of glacial action, for at that time there was 

 very little knowledge of glacier work in the United States ; in fact, American glaciology has almost en- 

 tirely been built up since that time ; and hence the.-ie two failures are no discredit to his proficiency as a 

 geologist. The fact was, the state had sent him out to find mineral wealth, rather than purely scientific 

 knowledge, and he had to chase for gold — &\\ other geological knowledge gained being only accidental 

 or incidental, as tributary to that one main pursuit for precious metals. I make this explanation in 

 justice to Prof. Whitney, who has been wrongfully criticized and censured lor the incompleteness of his 

 geological work iu this part of the state. The Farnsworth pamphlet of 1883, page 51, says : " The theory 

 was advanced years ago by Prof. Whitney that this entire portion of the San Gabriel valley is underlaid 

 by a vast subterranean body of water." 



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