CHAPARRAL. 21 
the conditions existing before the fire are now almost completely 
restored. The rainfall since the burning has been practically the 
same as it was before. While the watersheds were denuded, the 
whole visible run-off occurred within 60 hours after a storm. At 
present a heavy rainfall for a week is followed by an even flow in all 
the canyons, beginning slowly and lasting from a week to a month. 
At the time of the flood the canyon was so cut up and so filled with 
quicksand that the vaqueros rode the side hills or “ cuchillos.” At 
present the canyon can be traveled at all times. 
While it is true that the springs were observed during only five suc- 
cessive years before the fire, this testimony is supplemented by resi- 
dent Mexicans, who say that for 20 years prior to 1903 they consid- 
ered the springs as “* permanente,” perfectly steady and reliable, and 
that they were not “de temporado,” that is, intermittent. 
Another example of the influence of chaparral upon run-off on 
Mr. Nordhoff’s property was shown in the Potrero de Avenal (Pas- 
ture of Oats), a canyon containing the only water supply for about 
6,000 acres of grazing land. The region is mountainous, and the 
next nearest water is from 3 to 5 miles distant over a divide 1,200 
feet high. The stream which ran through the canyon had a surface 
fiow for a mile, then ez: underground flow for 4 miles, and finally 
a surface flow of half a mile. Between the two surface-flowing 
sections a spring flowed from a side hill. On the upper watershed 
was a heavy growth of chaparral, lilac, or “ Palo Colorado” (Ceano- 
thus spinosus), some of it 20 feet high. In 1893 the vaqueros burned 
off the chaparral. During the years following the lower section 
of the flowing water dried up, but so gradually that the vaqueros 
had time to “ develop ” a side-hill spring, which was made to supply 
water for 100 head of cattle and horses. But this spring, too, grad- 
ually dried up, and the region was then available only for horses, 
which can travel longer distances for water. The upper section of 
the flowing water never entirely dried up, but its volume diminished 
greatly. The spring remained dry for some years and then gradu- 
ally began to flow again. Later, water reappeared in the lower 
section, first only in winter, then at night throughout the year, until 
in 1904 it began to give promise of permanency. In this connection 
Mr. Nordhoff states: 
It is to be noted that, after a burning, the stream never, within one man’s 
memory, is as good as it was before the fire. It may be. as Indians and 
Mexicans claim, that it takes 50 years at least to complete the water-flow 
cycle. The effect of a fire on the water supply is so well known that you may 
hear Indians, Mexicans. and cattlemen discuss their great problem thus: “If 
there is brush the cattle find it hard to get at the grass, and. moreover, they 
become wild. If the chaparral is burned, then there is much less grass and 
yery much less water, and the water comes in fioods which are permanently 
