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Sierra Club Bulletin. 



of San Francisco by the Board of Army Engineers. Accordingly 

 the city has been given until June 30, 1912, to file the matters it 

 wishes to present with regard to the Modesto and Turlock irriga- 

 tion districts, and also the San Joaquin, Sacramento, and McCloud 

 sources of supply. By the 15th of July the city "is to file its com- 

 prehensive plans as to the proposed use and development of the 

 Hetch Hetchy and Lake Eleanor valleys and watersheds, includ- 

 ing the proposed sanitary restrictions, and all supporting evidence 

 as to the feasibiHty of these restrictions." By the first of August 

 all the supplementary data required by the Board of Army En- 

 gineers must be presented. All the various documents filed by 

 the city are to be available for examination by objectors, who are 

 given until the first of October for any replies they may wish to 

 make. The city is then given an additional thirty days to meet 

 any points that have been raised. The date of the hearing, there- 

 fore, is expected to fall some time during the month of November. 



W. F. B. 



The Soda With the acquisition of the Soda Springs 



Springs Purchase, property in the Tuolumne Meadows, Yo- 

 semite National Park, in the interest of the 

 Sierra Club, the Club has entered a new sphere of activity. For 

 many years the Appalachian Club and other similar organiza- 

 tions have owned tracts of land which for scenic reasons or ex- 

 ceptional forestral conditions were preserved and administered 

 in the public interest. The need for the ownership by our Club 

 of similar tracts in California has not been as great, owing to 

 the wisdom and foresight of the Government in permanently 

 reserving and setting aside as National and State parks large 

 areas of land containing such natural wonders. 



However, in the Yosemite National Park, in the Tuolumne 

 Meadows, near the source of the Tuolumne River, there exists 

 a privately owned tract, the only one in that vicinity, which 

 includes the famous soda springs. Club members have long 

 been famiHar with this delightful place. Joseph Le Conte, in 

 writing of his first trip there in 1872, said : 



"The Tuolumne Meadow is a beautiful grassy plain of great 

 extent, thickly enameled with flowers, and surrounded with the 

 most magnificent scenery. Soda Springs is situated on the 

 northern margin of the meadow. It consists of several springs 

 of ice-cold water . . . pungent and delightful to the taste. To 

 anyone wishing really to enjoy camp-Hfe among the High 

 Sierra, I know of no place more delightful than Soda Springs. 

 Being about nine thousand feet above the sea, the air is de- 

 liciously cool and bracing. The water, whether of the spring 



