568 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



pump that raised 2,400 gallons of water per hour, without perceptibly dimin- 

 ishing the supply. Mr. Carpenter informed me that the first fifty feet down 

 seemed to be a soil formation just like the surface ; then water was met with, 

 and the boring was through sand, gravel, boulders, etc., all the rest of the 

 way down. The water continually stands at fifty feet from the surface, but 

 rises no higher, that being the normal water level in our submerged ancient 

 lake-bed ; and that fifty feet of soil represents the depth or thickness of the 

 glacial till formation at that particular point. 



In September-October, 1894, Col. O. S. Picher and his son, sunk a well 

 at their home place on Magnolia Avenue below California street. They 

 bored to a depth of 120 feet and got seventy feet of water; then a steam 

 pump was put in and run at its best endeavor for twenty -four hours without 

 perceptibly lowering the water in the well. 



In March and April, 1895, the Electric R. R. Co. sunk a well 8x12 feet 

 in size, and 25 feet deep from surface, inside the northeast corner of their 

 great truss-roof car house. For two weeks it was necessary to keep a rotary 

 pump running at full speed night and day, to keep the water out so that 

 the diggers could continue their work. I visited the place five times during 

 the progress of this well. As to the amount of water being pumped out, 

 the workmen gave me different statements ; some I knew lied to me, and I 

 distrusted all of them, but had no means of measuring it myself; yet I noted 

 that the pump was throwing a steady 3-inch stream with such force as to 

 project it six feet from the outlet in a fall of about four feet. This is the 

 largest well service yet developed in Pasadena's ancient underground lake. 



April 18, 1895, I inspected the Santa Fe R. R. Co.'s well at Raymond 

 station. It is 8 x 8 feet in size and 16 feet deep, and usually fills from 7 to 8 

 feet during summer months ; but the pump man thought the Electric Car 

 Co.'s big new well had perceptibly lessened his supply, while it was bein^ 

 dug and its water-flow all pumped, out. With a 2^ inch outlet he could 

 pump his well empty in i ^ hours ; then it would take about three hours 

 for it to fill up again. The R. R. tank is 18 feet deep and holds 52,000 

 gallons. The i}^ hours pumping would raise the water line about two feet, 

 which would measure 5,778 gallons of water. He thought this well would 

 have to be dug deeper eventually. 



ARTESIAN WELL BORINGS. 



The first historic effort in this line was made by James Craig, a native 

 of England, who came here in 1869, as agent for the Grogan tract of 5,000 

 acres, and took 150 acres of it for his own home, where he still resides, at 

 the head of Craig Avenue. He calls his place "The Hermitage." The 

 well in question was on the south side of Villa street near Wilson Avenue, 

 and was drilled and piped to a depth of 490 feet ; water stood in it 340 feet 

 deep, but this was 150 feet short of coming to the surface for overflow, and 



