CHAPARRAL. 19 
In Soledad Canyon the tracks and bridges of the Southern Pacific 
Railway were swept away, and traflic was stopped for six weeks. In 
the Tujunga Valley, where thousands of acres of chaparral had been 
burned, rains rushed over unprotected slopes and cut deep and im- 
passable guilies in places where water had never done any damage 
before. Many apiaries were destroyed, although bee masters never 
placed their hives below the known flood level. 
At about the same time a tremendous fire covered practically the 
whole west face of the Santa Ana Range south of Los Angeles. Its 
results were felt for years in the reduced and irregular streamflow. 
One particularly disastrous flood, following soon after the fire, did 
much damage in the Capistrano Valley. Many hundreds of acres 
of fine agricultural land were washed away, and others were so gul- 
lied as to be valueless. Judge Eagan, of Capistrano, relates that he 
awoke one morning to find that 12 acres of his finest land had been 
washed away during the night. Recovery from this fire was slow, 
but since the restocking of the watershed with chaparral conditions 
are normal again, and after an ordinary rain the increased flow of 
the streams is hardly noticed. 
In 1901 and 1902 Mr. T. P. Lukens, vice president of the Forest 
& Water Association, of Los Angeles County, made an examination 
to determine why the San Antonio River, with a drainage area of 
97 square miles, furnished a minimum flow of 190 miner’s inches, 
while the San Gabriel River, with a drainage of 222 square miles, 
gave a minimum flow of 90 miner’s inches. The discrepancy was 
especially marked because the San Gabriel drainage was in the very 
center of an area of comparatively high precipitation. He found that 
no portion of it had escaped fire within a comparatively few years. 
Devil’s Canyon, with an area of 13 square miles and an average alti- 
tude of about 4,000 feet, had formerly been noted for its continuous 
flow of water. After being denuded of its cover by fire and over- 
grazing it had no conserving power whatever. On the other hand, 
the San Antonio River basin had suffered much less from fire. It is 
reasonable to suppose, Mr. Lukens thinks, that if fires had been kept 
out of both watersheds the minimum flow would have been propor- 
tionate to their areas, since their geological formations do not differ. 
Numerous measurements made by Mr. Lukens show that where the 
cover was perfect the variations between morning and evening meas- 
urements were so slight as to be insignificant, although the weather 
was very warm and clear. Other measurements on the same stream 
and on other streams in places where the cover had been destroyed 
showed that there was a loss of from 35 to 50 per cent between morn- 
ing and evening. Mr. Lukens states: 
Near Pasadena there are two small canyons from which some years ago an 
equal amount of water was flowing. About 1885 a fire swept over the drainage 
