FEATURES AND WATER RIGHTS OF YUBA RIVER. 



123 



B}' means of daily i-eport.s by telephone the chief engineer of the company is 

 enabled through diagrams upon a lai'ger scale to approximate during the latter half 

 of April to within a few days of the duration of the snow suDoly and the beginning 

 of the draft on reservoirs. 



Data and studies of this kind are highly valuable and suggest the importance of 

 stations above the snow line as a means of determining the volume of snow storage 

 available in diffei'ent seasons and the ratio between the volumes stored by snow and 

 by reservoirs. The discharge of the streams is maintained during the spring and 

 for one-half the sunomaer months bj- snow, and the measure and rate of this discharge 

 can be reasonably foretold by daily readings of properly situated gages. 



Data (iraJiM k; W. P. E^kbri^l. 

 Fia. 2. — Diagram showing depth of snow at Lake Fordyce. 



AUTTFICIAL STORAGE FACLLITIES ON YTJBA RIVER. 



SOUTH FORK. 



The natural facilities for the storage of storm waters are particularly favoi-abie 

 in the upper third of the drainage basin of the South Fork. The demands for large 

 volumes of water under high pressure to operate mines in the middle and lower 

 portions of its di-ainage basin and those on Bear and American rivers were met by 

 the construction of large and expensive canals and storage reservoirs. 



Just above the great bend north of the head of Bear River and at the head of the 

 steep canyon of the South Fork, thei'e occurs a broad and flat glacial valley which has 

 been converted into Lake Spaulding by a stone dam. The lake has a capacity of 

 270,000,000 cubic feet and is the lower and controlling reservoir of a series embrac- 

 ing the available storage supply above. This supply is derived from about 120 



