SURVEYS OP FOREST RESERVES. 29 



Cascade River are three or four ranches, and there is some settlement 

 in the Ruby Creek district depending upon the mines. Upon the east 

 side there are a number of ranches in the Methow valley, including the 

 little town of Winthrop and the mining village of Camp Gilbert. Upon 

 Lake Chelan there are a few ranches and the hotel at the head of the 

 lake. A few miners are located upon Railroad and Company creeks, 

 west of the upper portion of the lake. 



Timber cutting. — There is no timber cutting within the reserve, 

 excepting a trifling amount for the local needs of the settlers and mines. 

 There is at present very little demand for its timber, the general market 

 being supplied by the forests farther west. 



The facilities for getting timber out of the reserve are very poor. With 

 the exception of the trifling amount of wagon roads the only routes 

 would be by the streams, and these are extremely rapid and rocky. 

 Much work would be required upon them to make them suitable for 

 driving logs. 



FOREST RESERVES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



Surveys. — After the parties engaged in the Northwest were forced to 

 discontinue work they were transferred to southern California and work 

 was begun in the San Gabriel Timber Land Reserve and in the San 

 Jacinto Reserve. 



In the former the survey will prove especially important, as the city 

 of Los Angeles is now considering the question of water supply, wliich 

 will largely depend upon the preservation of the forested areas in the 

 mountains over which the reservation extends. The area to be sur- 

 veyed includes the entire drainage basin of the Los Angeles River, and 

 will afford valuable and indispensable information to the engineers 

 engaged in the solution of the question of the water supply for Los 

 Angeles. In order to provide control for this work the existing tri- 

 angulation in the Los Angeles valley was extended northward. One 

 hundred square miles of detailed topography have been completed. 



Work has been commenced in the San Jacinto Reserve and will be 

 prosecuted throughout the spring months by topographic, triangula- 

 tion, and level parties. There are a number of artesian wells in this 

 locality, and the water supply of a large section of the country devoted 

 to fruit raising, for the success of which constant irrigation is essential, 

 is directly dependent upon the preservation of the trees and shrubbery 

 in the mountains included in the reserve. • 



About $9,000 have been so far expended in this locality, and there 

 is at present a force of twenty men engaged. 



On the 1st of January a 'party commenced work in the San Bernar- 

 dino forest reserve, and up to March 1 had succeeded. in covering an 

 area of about 200 square miles. 



Examination of forests. — About the middle of February Mr. J. B. 

 Leiberg was ordered to this region for the purpose of making an exami- 

 nation of the San Jacinto, San Bernardino, and San Gabriel reserves, 

 upon which work he is at present engaged. 



Summary. — In the accompanying tabular statistical summary are 

 given the figures relating to the surveys thus far executed in the forest 

 reserves. 



Of the results of the examination of the forests it may be briefly 

 stated that in the area examined, which is approximately 15,000 square 

 miles, the statistics of the several species of standing timber and the 

 amounts of each, with the areal distribution, have been collected. 



