THE SANTA FE ROUTE, _ 1:73 
is conspicuous due north of the station, and other high ones are in 
view farther back in the range. : 
Deep canyons lead out of the mountains at short intervals, and 
most of these contain living streams, whose water, if not diverted by 
irrigation ditches, sinks immediately at the mouths of the canyons 
and passes as a general underflow into the gravel and sand of the 
slope beyond. In times of freshet the streams flow greater or less 
distances across the slope, carrying much sediment, which is dropped 
-as the water spreads out on the plain. Occasional great floods cross 
the plains, but much of the large volume of water they carry at such 
times is absorbed by the porous gravels of the stream beds. The 
courses of these ephemeral streams are marked by dry washes, usually 
shallow sandy channels, many of them splitting up irregularly and 
some of the branches rejoining. 
One effective method of conserving water in this region, where 
water is so valuable, is to divert the flood waters near the canyon 
mouth, causing them to spread out widely over the coarse deposits, 
into which they sink, thus adding to the volume of underflow tapped 
by the many wells. 
At Upland station the railway passes 2 miles north of Ontario, a 
city on the Southern Pacific Railroad, surrounded by wide areas of 
orange groves and other products of irrigation. Four 
Upland. miles to the northwest is the mouth of San Antonio 
Elevation 1,210 feet. Canyon, one of the large canyons in the San Gabriel 
ees i rauahes: Mountains, which furnishes considerable water for 
irrigation. On the plain its bed spreads into half a 
dozen irregular washes, which are crossed by the train between Upland 
and Claremont. From the gravel and sand under this plain a large . 
amount of water is pumped for irrigation. Water is saved by lining 
the canals with concrete and by distributing it in underground pipes, 
methods which prevent loss by leakage and by evaporation. 
West of Claremont a spur of the San Gabriel Mountains on the 
north extends nearer to the railway, and the San Jose Hills,* a north- 
ern extension of the Santa Ana Mountains, approach 
Lordsburg. from the south. Owing to these conditions the valley 
Elevation 1,039 feet. narrows to about 3 miles at Lordsburg. In order to 
Sea renin: pass the San Jose Hills the railway has been de- 
flected to the northwest, a course that soon takes it 
near the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, which are closely skirted 
from San Dimas to Pasadena. Lordsburg was originally a Dunkard 
settlement. It has numerous orange and lemon groves. 
' The San Jose Hills consist mainly of a | (Miocene), flexed in broad basins ~ 
_. thick series of sandstones and shales of | arches. — : their east end, : ane 0 
___ the lower part of the Fernando formation | Lordsburg, 1s an area of granitic rock. 
97579°—Bull. 613 —15——12 
