THE PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL DAM. 



discharge 40,000 cubic feet per minute. 

 Breast dams and discharging weirs have 

 been constructed where necessary along its 

 course. Round the northern end of the 

 swamp an earth dam five miles long has 

 been made, partly to increase the storage 

 capacity of the basin and partly to carry a 

 small channel, discharging directly into 

 the main distributing channel, on the 

 further side of the reservoir. In case of 

 an emergency, water can thus be led at 

 once from the river to distributing channel 

 without passing through the storage basin. 

 The capacity of this channel is 10,000 

 cubic feet per minute, and is provided at 

 its offtake with the necessary regulating 

 sluices and gates. 



The storage basin is capable of retain- 

 ing 1,478 million cubic feet, and has an 

 area of 6,850 acres, with an average depth 

 of six and three-fourth feet. The outlet 

 works consist of an open cut three- quarters 

 of a mile long, furnished with timber 

 sluices and regulating gates leading into 

 the distributing channel. This has a bed 

 width of thirty-six feet and depth of four 

 feet and has been excavated to a gradient 

 of three inches to the mile. Along its 

 course are various road bridges, drainage 

 culverts, etc. The length of this channel 

 is about twenty-three miles to the Loddon 

 river, under which it passes by means of a 

 pipe syphon. Regulating and relief sluices 

 are provided at this point. As practically 

 the whole of the water of Loddon river is 

 diverted above this crossing to supply var- 

 ious trusts, compensation water to the ex- 



tent of 500 cubic feet per minute is allowed 

 to pass into the river from the channel to 

 supply property holders and townships 

 below. Between the storage basin and 

 the Loddon river a considerable area of 

 country to the north is irrigable from this 

 channel. After passing the river the 

 water is discharged into the various trust 

 channels deriving their supply from the 

 Kow Swamp works. 



LAND COMMANDED BY WORKS. 



The gross irrigable area commanded by 

 this scheme is 130,000 acres, but as at 

 present constituted 50,000 acres can be 

 watered in winter, and it is estimated that 

 enough water can be stored to irrigate 

 25,000 acres in summer. 



COST OF WORKS. 



The total cost to date has been 175,000 

 ($875,000) and the maintenance expenses 

 work out at about 1,500 ($7,500) per 

 annum. 



So far the government has charged the 

 trusts nothing for the water supplied by 

 these national works. It is intended, how- 

 ever, as the trusts become financially 

 stronger to make such charges as will pay 

 for maintenance, interest on the cost of con- 

 struction, and provide a sinking fund to 

 recoup the State for its expenditure. 



The writer desires to express his indebt- 

 edness to the Chief Engineer of Victoria 

 Water Supply and his officers for much 

 information, freely given, in regard to the 

 foregoing works. 



THE PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL DAM: 



BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 



THIS matter is likely to engage the at- 

 tention of Congress at the next ses- 

 sion, and will involve entirely new ques- 

 tions of international law as regards 

 priority of water rights on international 

 streams, which will not only be of peculiar 

 interest for their own sake, but are sure to 

 bring up the whole question of the Federal 

 control of interstate irrigating streams. 

 The history of the present case com- 



mences in the year 1549, when the town of 

 Ciudad Juarez was settled by the Spaniards 

 on the right bank of the Rio Grande, just 

 opposite the present town of El Paso, 

 Texas, at which point the river crosses the 

 southern boundary of the Territory of New 

 Mexico, and from hence on, forms the divid- 

 ing line between Texas and the Republic 

 of Mexico. 



For more than 300 years the Mexicans 



Prepared from data furnished by John S. Barnes, of El Paso, Texas. 



