DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 
189 
20 miles to the north. The term “ wash” is applied in the West to 
a stream or to the bed of a stream that is generally intermittent and 
that carries so much material that it clogs its own channel and is 
thus compelled to wander over a wide area. In some places where 
these streams are crossed by the railroad they have cut deep chan- 
nels that have nearly vertical sides. 
Ordinarily very little water 
the stream is at the stage at which 
e measurement is made 
Large rivers or even small streams 
at their flood stage can not be mea 
ured by wading, on account not only 
of the depth but of the swiftness of 
the stream, which may make it almost 
impossible to stand against the cur- 
Tent, so that it may be necessary to 
? 
stream 
meter is suspended and held at the 
to the current-meter equipment it 
always happens when the engineer is 
suspended in midstrea i 
raining or while a wind is blowing 
what the loyal Westerner mildly terms 
“just a stiff breeze.” 
Discharge measurements are made 
at different stages of the water. Per- 
haps half a dozen will cover the range 
between high and low water. These 
measurements, when plotted on cross- 
section paper, e a curve known as 
the “rating curve” for the station. 
, 
Ficurn 49.—Method of measuring the flow of a river at a cable station. 
t 
The view shows 
he section of the river and the car, gage, and other apparatus, 
of lead weights. To swing a meter 
Weighted with 20 or 30 pounds of lead 
for several hours in measuring a swift 
Tiver from a bridge is a form of exer- 
t is a sure cure for insomnia. 
If there is no bridge at the gaging sta- 
tion, the stream must be spanned with 
4 cable, and the engineer must work 
$ an even 
“ver Cure for insomnia than a bridge 
measurement. In passing, it may be 
hoted that if anything wrong happens 
From this curve the discharge for any 
stage of water can be estimated, and 
e engineer can calculate with suffi- 
cient accuracy for most purposes the 
daily flow from the gage readings fur- 
nished by the local observer. 
If a river carried the same quantity 
of water each year it would be neces- 
sary only to maintain a gaging station 
at a particular place for a year, but 
o 
my 
| as the flow varies widely from year 
to year it is necessary to maintain the 
stations for several years in order to 
determine the flow not only for an 
average year but for the wet and the : 
years, 
