572 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



By former experience, Mr. Shorb had learned pretty nearly where the 

 clay dyke or dam lay, and took pains to sink this well above it so as to test 

 the permanent water level of the great underground basin. He then run a 

 tunnel from lower down the canyon so as to tap the well at a point consider- 

 ably below the permanent water level and thus obtain a liberal continuous 

 flow. He informs me that he has tapped twelve wells in this way at points 

 from ten to thirty-seven feet below their natural outflow, and in each case 

 obtained from ten to twenty per cent, more water. The Winston farm, next 

 east of Shorb' s, has some wells tapped in the same way. Also the Heslope 

 place next north of Winston's. But this is only practicable along the line 

 of the glacial terrace and its clay dyke or submerged dam. 



WATER TUNNELS. 



From my geological report in January, 1894, I quote this amusing bit 

 of tunnel history : 



" In 1882 Judge B. S. Eaton tunneled into the basin rim at his place on 

 the South Pasadena bluff and obtained a good flow of water. Then David 

 Raab run a tunnel on his land farther east and lower down than Eaton's, 

 and got a flow of water ; but, lo ! Eaton's tunnel went dry. Raab then 

 sold this part of his land to Mr. Ivightfoot and made another tunnel for 

 himself farther east and a little lower down, with the result that he obtained 

 water but Eightfoot's tunnel went dry. Next, H. D. Bacon made a tunnel 

 on his land, farther east and lower down than Raab's, and got a good supply 

 of water, but Raab's tunnel went dry. And the Bacon tunnel remains yet, 

 being the one now owned by the Raymond Improvement Co. These 

 four successive tunnels all tapped the basin rim, the last one, however, being 

 lowest down and nearest the flowage bed of this local basin's natural storm- 

 wash outlet — the depression or gully which rises west of Grace Hill, cuts 

 across Columbia street, and debouches near Fair Oaks station on the Eos 

 Angeles Terminal railroad. For convenience I designate it as the "West 

 Basin gully." 



The Valley Union of June 4, 1886, published a report which I made of 

 a great tunnel undertaking then in progress at the foot of Dry canyon, and 

 for its historic interest I here quote it : 



" Pasadena has the longest water tunnel in Eos Angeles county. This 

 tunnel is in the wash that forms the outlet from three water-bearing canj'ons, 

 Eas Flores, Rubio, and Dry canyon, but there is no flowing water in the 

 wash except occasionally during the rainy season. More than a 3^ear ago a 

 prospecting shaft was dug by Dolben and Watkins, forty feet deep, which 

 yielded five feet of water and kept to that depth all summer. They then 

 went about 1950 feet down the wash and started the tunnel, in Jul3^ 1885, at 

 a level 120 feet lower than the bottom of their prospect shaft. The work 

 has gone steadily forward since that time, and the tunnel is now in about 

 1050 feet from its mouth, in a line so straight that a man at the inner end 

 with a good rifle could shoot a rabbit outside. The passage is three feet 

 wide at base, and twenty inches at top, and five and a half feet high clear 

 space inside of arch posts. Three air shafts have already Vjeen dug to con- 

 nect with the tunnel from the surface ; but the first one has been passed and 

 closed ; the second one is now in use both for ventilation and to hoist out 



