16 
SEEPAGE OR RETURN WATERS FROM IRRIGATION. 
twenty-one. This is due to the water entering the canal during the 
night, and the day water in use by the mill has not yet reached 
this point. It is not thought that this fluctuation materially affects 
the indicated inflow at lower points on the river at that date. 
The measurements made up to this time indicated that 
the inflow was approximately the same. Inasmuch as the 
measurements had been made at only one period of the year, it 
seemed desirable to know whether or not the amount of return 
waters was the same at other seasons of the year; hence,beginning 
with the measurement of 1892, gagings have been made during 
the spring, when the conditions were favorable, as well as in the 
fall. 
The fifth measurement was made in March, 1892, at a time 
before the canals had used much water for irrigation, but still when 
most of them were drawing some water, either for domestic pur¬ 
poses or for irrigating fruit and garden lands. All streams or 
ditches which contained water were measured and are indicated in 
this table, as in subsequent ones. In case the streams were bringing 
water to the river which seemed to be derived from seepage water, 
thus finding a way to the stream, the amount of the gaging is 
inclosed in parenthesis, and is not counted in the summation, as it 
is considered only another way of the water returning to the stream. 
The source of these waters has not at every gaging been investi¬ 
gated, but, in several cases, and at different times, we have traced 
these sloughs and creeks to their crossing with the outermost ditches, 
finding in every case that there is not a stream above the ditch. 
In some instances the quantity here given may include some waste 
waters. In general, the amount is insignificant, although in the 
measurements of August, 1894, there may be some to be thus 
considered. 
In some cases the out-takes of ditches are inclosed in paren¬ 
thesis. These are cases where the water returned almost imme¬ 
diately to the river. Frequently the measurement was made, and 
the fact of the water returning was discovered afterwards as we 
passed down the stream. 
In several measurements, as in 1895, it was not possible to 
complete the * gagings without intermission. In these cases 
the increase was found for each section. In several cases wherever 
seepage water had been collected in a lateral channel or drainage 
ditch and was found running into the river, it was measured and 
noted as a matter of record, and is found inclosed in single paren¬ 
theses. Where this was caught in another channel, and did not 
reach the river, it is inclosed in two sets of parentheses. The water 
is thus found coming from the Big Thompson creek. 
