THE IRRIGATION AGE. 201 



Reservoirs above ground with large drainage areas are not numer- 

 ous in the region of the San Gabriel, the San Bernadino or the San 

 Jacinto mountains. But reservoirs of remarkable areas and of great 

 depths and deeply covered to prevent evaporation, and with hundreds 

 of miles of watershed behind them, underlie the most fertile valleys 

 of Southern California. The water stored in the mountains should 

 be reserved for the lands lying too high to be economically reached by 

 pumping. There is enough such land to call for all such water we 

 have. Bear Valley Reservoir in the mountains has but forty-five 

 miles of watershed and three miles of area, while the great reservoir 

 under San Bernadino Valley has not less than ten times that water- 

 shed and is at least 140 miles in area, and so far as sounded is more 

 than 1,000 feet deep. The vast resources of Riverside irrigation 

 waters the best we have flow out of this reservoir. What vast sup- 

 plies for lower lands flow out below the surface we do not know. Bear 

 Valley Reservoir was dry in July, 1899, and is still empty, while the 

 San Bernadino basin is overflowing through artesian wells which are 

 the wonder of the world. 



With such underground reservoirs, the average drainage of the 

 vast mountain areas can be depended'upon, and they are adequate for 

 all uses. As another example, the San Jacinto basin, with an area 

 equal to that of San Bernadino, has dropped during the last six years 

 of unprecedented drouth but about one foot a year in its water level, 

 though being pumped to over 1,000 inches this year. And the San 

 Fernando Valley has likewise shown most remarkable resources, justi- 

 fying the greatest confidence in its permanence. These are the three 

 great basins in connection with these mountains. In many other 

 places we have seepage from these basins, and these may be as per- 

 manent as the basins themselves. 



The areas along the San Gabriel foothills have developed many 

 good wells, but nearly all of these, like foothill tunnels, show signs of 

 failure. Such wells near Pomona, which a few years ago flowed 200 

 miners' inches, are now being pumped down 55 feet and yield only 

 half as much water. These wells show also the fatal signs of shallow 

 supply in that they rise promptly after rains These have been and 

 will be of great use in an occasional dry year to supplement free flow- 

 ing streams, but if depended upon for a series of years for steady irri- 

 gation they must fail. There is no indication that any of the sources 

 of water spoken of are fed from more distant drainage areas. 



Wells in and along the underground outlets of the great basin of 

 San Bernadino and San Jacinto have a most hopeful outlook as per- 

 manent sources of water supply for all lands to which they can be 

 economically raised. These waters should be guarded for the areas 

 immediately adjoining, and not run off to distant regions for use upon 

 new lands. Owners with growing orchards needing to be saved should 



