348 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



more than are to be found in any other district of equal size in 

 the world. Their water is nearly all used to irrigate land; 

 some for manufacturing purposes. They supply about two 

 million gallons in twenty-four hours. The wells are from fifty 

 to four hundred feet deep ; the bore varies from six to nine 

 inches. Only a small portion of Santa Clara Valley yields 

 artesian water ; the artesian district lies north of a line com- 

 mencing at Mountain View ; thence running nine miles with 

 the road through the town of Santa Clara to San Jose ; and 

 thence southeast to the mountains. South of this line no arte- 

 sian water is found. 



It is supposed that the water comes from certain subterra- 

 nean streams. One well has abundant water at one hundred 

 feet ; another, not more than one hundred yard^ distant, has 

 no water short of three hundred feet. The wells throw up 

 living fish and shell-fish, which are of different species in dif- 

 ferent wells. Some wells throw up soft-shell clams, good to 

 eat, and of a kind not found in the superterrene waters of the 

 State, before the opening of these artesian supplies. One well 

 throws up a snail, with a long spiral shell ; another has snails 

 with flat shells ; and others have blind fish, evidently of a spe- 

 cies that has lived long in subterrene waters, and lost its eyes 

 because it had no use for them. Like the fish of the Mammoth 

 Cave, in Kentucky, these artesian fish have the eye-socket and 

 a blind eye in it. The wells that produce the fish and shell- 

 fish are mostly shallow, not more than one hundred and fifty 

 feet deep. If put into water fresh from wells two hundred 

 and fifty or three hundred feet deep, they soon die, as do su- 

 perterrene fish ; either, it is supposed, because the water is 

 too warm, or because it has not enough air in it. The deeper 

 the well, the warmer the water. 



Many of the wells have gone dry " been drained by other 

 wells," as people say ; but yet how can one well " drain " an- 

 other, the mouths of both being on a level with each other ? 

 The wells whose mouths are at a lower level may take water 



