CHAPTER XIII. 79 



are steep, high and extensive. They are almost without foothills. 

 '1 uey rise directly out of the vegas and irrigated valleys that mainly 

 depend on the water delivery from them for life. 



2nd. — We have a climate that has a prolonged dry season of sun- 

 shine. This is alternated with a season of possible rainfall that is oc- 

 casionally almost as dry as the summer. From time to time there is a 

 diluvial summer rain on the eastern part of the Sierra. One of these 

 rains produced torrent action that did af considerable amount of dam- 

 age in passing through the City of Redlands. In a decade, there always 

 have been one or more seasons of very heavy rainfall during the period 

 of expected rains. The rainfall increases with the elevation to at 

 least four thousand feet. It is therefore greater in the Sierras than in 

 the valleys. 



During the season of '84, the rainfall in Los Angeles was 38 inches, 

 most of which fell in a period of six consecutive weeks. At the same 

 time, the rainfall on the Kinneloa ranch, at the foot of the Sierra Madre 

 range was 60 inches. This illustrates the difference of rainfall between 

 mountain and valley. A notable fact in this connection, shown by 

 twenty years' observation on this ranch, compared to the observation at 

 Los Angeles is that the greater the rainfall the greater is the excess 

 precipitated on the mountains. 



3rd. — The rainfall in Southern California is so near the limit of a 

 possible support of mountain tree and brush vegetation that forest de- 

 struction, and consequent injury to the water sup/ily and increase of 

 torrent action, is unusually difficult to correct and demands preven- 

 tion. 



A recent examination of the Guadalasqua, Slques, Malibu and Gar- 

 battan districts in the Santa Monica Sierra illustrates this. This Sier- 

 ra is neither so high nor so steep as the great main ranges. The cov- 

 ering is almost exclusively chaparral. It has long been exploited by 

 wood-choppers and cattle and sheep men. Its stock carrying capacity 

 Is small and is constantly diminishing. To eke the feed out, the cus- 

 tomary methods have been adopted on both private and public lands. 

 Fire is set in the chaparral in the fall, so that the stock can have the 

 new shoots from the roots to feed on the next season. This operation 

 followed two or three times kills the brush. The rains then carry off 

 the soil, and there is neither grass nor brush nor feed of any kind. A 

 report just made to me on these districts shows that there are extensive 

 areas where the native growth is destroyed and the mountains bare. 

 Springs never known to be dry by the oldest American and Spanish set- 



