IRRIGATION PROBLEMS OF HONEY LAKE BASIN. 79 



and thereafter furnish only so much water regularly as might be saved from evapora- 

 tion b}- decreasing the area of its surface. Thev calculate that this would be equal 

 to the irrigation of about 5,000 acres of land. If no more than this could be irrigated 

 the cost of the project would be prohibitory. They further say that the matter of 

 watershed and under-ground springs does not enter into the question at all, since it is 

 perfectly plain that no more water flows into this land-locked lake each 3-ear than 

 escapes by evaporation and leakage; otherwise its level must rise steadity year after 

 year until its water finds an outlet. They claim that there is but a single chance that 

 the advocates of the project may be right, and that that chance lies in the possibility 

 that by drawing down the level of the lake 20 feet veiy great leakages may be stopped, 

 and the water so saved taken into the tunnel and thence to the lands in the valley 

 below. The following simple illustration shows the skeptical point of view: Suppose 

 you had a tank of a certain capacity and that the inflow of water at one side was 

 exactly balanced bj* the outflow at the other, so that the level of the water in the tank 

 remained always about the same. Suppose that you now put in a new pipe to tap 

 the tank 1 foot below the surface of the water. Would not the new pipe necessarilj' 

 draw down the water to its own level ? If so, would the pipe thereafter draw anj"^ 

 water at all? Certainly not, unless there were leaks in your tank between the mouth 

 of the new pipe and the former water level. 



Popular opinion in the localit}' is stronglj^ on the side of those' who believe Eagle 

 Lake to be an inexhaustible supply, fed from mysterious sources, which will be equal 

 to any demands that may be made upon it under anj' and all circumstances. Popular 

 faith in it possesses almost the qualit}' of a superstition. Scientific opinion, on the 

 contrary, regards it as a delusion, though there are some local engineers who hold 

 the popular view, justifj^ing it on the ground that large leakages will be stopped 

 when the lake is drawn down by the proposed tunnel, and that the water so saved, 

 together with that which everybody admits would be saved from evaporation b}' 

 decreasing the surface of the lake, would sufiice for the irrigation of a very large 

 area. It is a question which can never be satisfactorily settled until the experiment 

 of the tuimel is actualh^ made. 



Wholh^ aside from the merits of this controversy, Eagle Lake is sure to be a 

 factor in the future and to serve a purpose of the highest utilit}- in connection with 

 the largest reclamation of the valley below. Whatever else it is or is not, it is a 

 great natural reservoir which might safely be drawn upon in drj- years to save 

 millions of dollars' worth of crops if the entire valley were in cultivation. It could 

 safely be drawn upon for this purpose one year in ten. and probably three years in 

 ten. This would be practicable provided the lake were made a part of a great system 

 of irrigation depending for its regular supply upon streams and reservoirs elsewhere 

 in the basin which are annually reenforced bj' the year's precipitation. In good 

 years these other sources would furnish irrigation for the entire valley, but the 

 history of the countiy shows that good j'ears can not always be depended upon. 

 There is alwaj's one dry year in every ten, generally two dry j-ears, sometimes three. 

 In such years the reserve available fi'om Eagle Lake would save the entire valley 

 and, charged as a capitalized cost against the whole, pay good dividends alike to the 

 money invested and to the community. 



