WATER APPROPRIATION FROM KINGS RIVEK. 293 



the amount of water per share of stock in the canal exceeds three units, each indi- 

 cated by a clear overfall of 4 inches on a length of 12 inches, then all surplus water 

 is held for sale, by the directors of the company, at fixed rates per month per unit. 

 The cost of canal management, maintenance, and repairs is assessed upon the stock- 

 holders. The annual expense assessment is now about $80 per share of stock. The 

 works required to divert water from the main canal into private ditches, including 

 weirs in the main canal, are constructed by the consumers of water, subject to 

 approval by the canal company. 



Satisfactorj' use of this canal has been interfered with to no little extent by 

 litigation, generally involving the right of the canal to receive water from the river, 

 and, as in the case of other canals from Kings River, its permanent etficiency as a 

 source of supplj* has been thrown somewhat into doubt by adverse decisions of the 

 courts. 



The maximum capacity of this canal is approximateh' 660 cubic feet per second. 

 The area irrigated or in some waj- benefited by its water is about 20,000 acres. 



AliTA IRBIGATION DISTBICT (76 CANAL). 



The canal which supplies water to the Alta Irrigation District is known as the 

 76 Canal. It belongs to the upper group of Kings River canals. Its head is on the 

 south side of the river about l.o miles above the head of the Kings River and Fresno 

 Canal, if the point at which the uppermost work for the direction of water toward 

 the canal regulator may be tenned its head. At that point a branch of the river has 

 1>een enlarged somewhat and otherwise improved, and the water diverted from the 

 main stream through this natural channel is carried in a succession of dejjressions, ' 

 or high-water channels, along the southeastern margin of Centerville Bottoms about 

 3 miles to a point where the canal cuts out upon the higher plain h'ing to the east of 

 the Centerville Bottoms. The natural depressions or water courses forming the 

 head of the canal have in large part been converted into a canal by building up, 

 along their low western banks, embankments of cobblestones and bowlders, which 

 were taken from the beds of these depressions or water courses in enlarging them. 

 Where the canal turns away from Centerville Bottoms onto the upland a cut 9 feet 

 in depth was necessaiy. From this point the canal has a general southeasterlj' 

 course, following a grade line with 18 inches fall to the mile, thirt skirts the western 

 foothill base. At 6 miles below the i-egulator the canal is carried across Wahtoke 

 Creek, and its southeasterly course is maintained about 22 miles farther, to near 

 Cottonwood Creek. The main canal has been made the eastern boundary' of the Alta 

 Irrigation District. 



The bed width of the canal throughout the first 9.5 miles below the regulator is 

 100 feet. The maximum amount of water carried has been approximated at about 

 900 cubic feet per second. With a depth of 5 feet of water, which has thus far never 

 been attained, the capacity would be about 1.200 cubic feet per second. From the 

 main canal numerous bi-anches extend southwesterly and southerly into the heart of 

 the district. The principal of these is the Traver branch, which has been given a 

 bed width of 60 feet. It leaves the main canal about 1.5 miles below Wahtoke Creek, 

 and. as its name indicates, delivers water to lands in the vicinity of Traver. Branch 

 canals are for the most part located across the valley plain on lines of its greatest 



