WATER APPROPEIATIOX FROM KINGS RIVER. 



265 



TTTLABE LAKE. 



It is not without interest to note in connection with this inquiiy that Tulare 

 Lake has for several years been dry, and that there has been no overflow f I'om it into 

 Fresno Swamp since about 1876. 



On the basis of such information as has been obtainable a diagram of the fluctua- 

 tions of the lake's surface has been prepared, to which, as a general indication of the 

 character of the seasons, a diagram of the rainfall at San Francisco has been added. 

 (Fig. 12.) 



It is to be noted that the flood flow of all the San Joaquin Valley streams was 

 exceptionally large in the winters of 1861-62 and 1867-68; also that the rainfall rec- 



Fig. 12.— Rainfall at San Francisco, and fluctuations in depth of Tulare Lake. 



ord at San Francisco does not always correcth' represent the conditions that prevail 

 in the interior, and particularly toward the south. This is notably true with seasons 

 with less than normal rainfall. 



When it is considered that vast areas of land on Kern, Tule, and Kaweah rivers, 

 as well as on Kings River, the lake's principal feeders, have been under irrigation, 

 and that irrigation canal capacities on these streams in the aggregate mount into 

 thousands of cubic feet per second, it is not 3tU"prising that the recedence of the lake 

 is generall_v attributed to the diversion of water for irrigation. There can be no 

 doubt that the use of water for agricultural purposes has had its effect upon the stages 

 of the lake, but when the enormous influx into the lake in a single season — 1861-62, 



