260 IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



when crop failure after crop failure made financial ruin seem certain, there remained 

 nothing to do but to risk all in an endeavor to get water out upon the upland. 



So it came about that many were soon ready to make desperate efforts to coax a 

 portion of the river's abundant supply of water out upon the high, dry plain, for 

 when a first effort had met with success and apparent]}' justified the judgment of its 

 promoters others quickly followed, and this despite the fact that under some inter- 

 pretations of the riparian doctrine no such diversion was permissible, unless, possibly, 

 for riparian lands, without the consent of all lower riparian owners. Whenever the 

 settlers were financially able and water was within reach of their means, even though 

 the means consisted not of coin, but onl}^ of plows, scrapers, and willing hands, 

 ditches and canals were constructed. It was thus that Mr. M. J. Church, the pro- 

 jector of the Fresno Canal, and himself the owner of a section of upland, pledged his 

 whole credit to promote ditch construction. And it was the same spirit which a few 

 j-ears later prompted the farmers of the Kingsburg region to pay for their right to 

 take water from the Fresno Canal by constructing one of its most expensive sections, 

 contributing labor, horses, implements, and supplies at a time when they were hard 

 pressed in obtaining the mere necessities of life. It is this spirit which has called 

 into being the extensive irrigation canal and ditch systems of Kings River, which 

 now command over 1,000 square miles of valley land, and actually benefit an area of 

 about 70,000 acres. 



Kings River takes rank among the large rivers which drain the western slope 

 of the Sierra Nevada. Only one of these has a larger drainage basin — Kern River, 

 with 2,Mo square miles — but the precipitation on the watershed of Kern River being 

 less than that of the Kings River the latter outranks the fomier when volumes of 

 flow are compared. San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers are in this class, with drainage 

 basins but little smaller than that of Kings River, but both being farther north, with 

 somewhat greater rainfall. In location Kings River maybe classed as fairly central ; 

 it cuts across the east-side plain of the San Joaquin Valley to the Tulare Lake about 

 midway between Stockton and the southern extremitj' of the valley. It is paralleled 

 by the San Joaquin River on the north, about 20 miles distant, and by the Keweah 

 River on the south, about 15 miles away. The breadth of the east-side valley-plain 

 course of the river from base of the foothills to the lake and swamp region is about 

 30 miles. 



The elevation of the valley where Kings River leaves the foothills is about 400 

 feet above sea level. It falls in 20 miles to about 300 feet at Fresno, and about 86 

 feet thence to Summit Lake, which, as Its name implies, lies on the delta summit 

 which divides the Tulare Lake basin from the Fresno Swamp region to the north- 

 ward. This delta summit is a very flat ridge built across the valley by the detrital 

 matter brought down by Kings River waters. At its lowest points in the trough 

 of the San Joaquin Valley its elevation is about 214 feet above sea level, and about 

 30 feet higher than the general level of the lowest portions of the Tulare Lake bed. 



WATERSHED. 



The watershed of Kings River has an area of 1,742 square miles. It is fan- 

 shaped ill form, spreading out as it extends northwesterly from the foothills near 

 Sanger into the Sierra Nevada, of whose crest line the river drains a length of about 



