1904 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



37 



1902 the reconstruction was commenced. 

 The old flume was enlarged, new foun- 

 dations were put in, the uprights, in- 

 stead of resting upon transverse mud 

 sills, rest upon sills parallel with the 

 direction of the flume. A fertile source 

 of breaks was the giving away of the 

 foundation under one pair of uprights 

 and the settling of enough of the trough 

 to open a crack between the flume 

 boards. A small stream of water thus 

 started soon so softens the earth below 

 the flume that nearby sills sink and fur- 

 ther settling allows the water to flow 

 over the side of the flume, and a serious 

 washout follows. 



The next important improvement was 

 in the lining of the flume. Tar, liquid 

 asphaltum, and ground lime were mixed 

 and painted on the flume while hot. 

 Previously the cracks between the 

 boards were stuffed with oakum and 

 planed battens nailed down. As a re- 

 sult of this treatment leakage from the 

 flume has been reduced to a minimum. 



Where the canal runs through earth 

 in the side-hill ditches, the sides and 



bottom were cement lined. The sides 

 and bottom of the excavated canal were 

 carefully smoothed, and board frames 

 of the shapes of the finished canal were 

 placed and cement packed in behind the 

 boards. The space thus filled with ce- 

 ment material ranged from two to three 

 inches in thickness. As soon as the 

 cement had set, the boards were re- 

 moved and the bottom plastered with 

 cement and all irregularities in the sides 

 smoothed over with a trowel. 



The greater part of the distance where 

 cement lining was put in was on a steep 

 hillside 90 feet above the bottom. The 

 material was mixed at the foot of the 

 hill and pulled by horse-power up the 

 slope 011 a wooden track. 



The old flume went around a perpen- 

 dicular rocky bluff, well known in the 

 neighborhood as " Painted Rock," from 

 Indian petroglyphs near the base of the 

 bluff. This portion of the trestle flume 

 has been replaced with a bench flume 

 resting upon a blasted foundation and 

 by a tunnel 60 feet long through rock. 

 Just beyond the end of the tunnel and 



VIEW SHOWING THE INVERTED SIPHON OF THE YAKIMA VALLEY CANAL. 



