CHAPTER XII—UNDERGROUND WATER. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The mode of occurrence of the underground water in the Cripple Creek district 
presents some unusual features, and has been the subject of special reports to the 
Portland company by Messrs. Victor G. Hills and Charles J. Moore and of a report 
to the Elkton company by Mr. Seeley W. Mudd. rt With the common conclusion 
of these engineers, that the underground water of Cripple Creek is essentially 
stored water, we are in full accord. We are also indebted to them as well as to 
Messrs. Countryman & Jaquith, engineers of the El Paso tunnel, and to Mr. Sher¬ 
wood Aldrich, of the Elkton Mining Company, for many facts pertaining to the 
water history of the mines and tunnels. 
ORIGINAL WATER SURFACE. 
The annual precipitation in the district is moderate. According to figures 
furnished by the Weather Bureau, it was 13.55 inches in 1903 and 24.01 inches in 
1904 (an unusually wet year). As these are the only years during which a record 
has been kept, a close estimate of the average annual precipitation can not be made. 
The precipitation, however, is certainly less than on Pikes Peak, where observa¬ 
tions extending over a period of fifteen years show an average of 28.65 inches. 
The average for Cripple Creek is probably not far from 16 inches. The slopes in 
the Cripple Creek district are, for the most part, bare, are frequently swept by 
dry winds, and are fairly steep, so that a considerable proportion of the rain and 
snow is evaporated or runs off without sinking into the ground. Finally, the dis¬ 
trict is deeply dissected by streams, and. as a whole, stands high above neighboring 
valleys. There are thus present conditions suggesting at first glance unusual depth 
of ground-water surface. 
Such, however, is not the case. The deep shafts in the main volcanic neck, 
where the ground had not been previously drained by neighboring workings, 
encountered water at moderate depths. As the shafts of the district did not reach 
water simultaneously, it is evident that the record of “'first water,” as a means of 
determining the original form and position of the ground-water surface, is of unequal 
value in different mines. According to Mr. V. G. Hills, who has for several years 
carefully collected and studied the available facts bearing upon the underground 
water, the only mines whose records of "first water” are useful in this connection 
a For the reports of Messrs. Hills and Moore, see Ninth Ann. Rept. Portland Gold Mining Company, J903. See, also, 
Hills, V. G., Water in the mines of Cripple Creek: Eng. and Min. Jour., vol. 76, 1903, pp. 117 (table), 195-197. 
