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Show 150 this country was formerly noted for its grazing is undeniable, aud I took pains to gather from every source of information some explanation of this change. Mr. Cuddy, pointing to the hills opposite his house, near Fort Tejon, said that the bunch- grass which once covered them no longer grew there at all. * Another source of disquietude to those interested in the welfare of this section of our country, is the diminution in the supply of water. It is true that in many localities where the attempt has been made, notably on the plains of Los Angeles and San Bernardino, artesian wells have been successfully sunk and furnish a plentiful supply of water. Even at Bakersfield, at a depth of 260 feet, water has been struck. Bat the grazing sections can hardly depend upon these for their wants, and everywhere I found evidences that the creeks and springs were failing. The Santa Clara River and Posa Creek, and the springs which feed them, may be cited as illustrations; their gradual, steady subsidence indicating something more serious than a failure in a winter's snows. As regards the springs, I was told that the sheep " trampled them out;" but acquitting them of this responsibility, they are undoubtedly inflicting an injury on this country of a very serious nature. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, C. W. WHIPPLE, Lieutenant of Ordnance, in Charge of Party. Lieut. GEO. M. WHEELER, Corps of Engineers, in Charge. APPENDIX G 1. METEOROLOGY AND HYPSOMETRY.- FIELD- SEASON OP 1875.- BY LIEUTENANT W. H. MARSHALL, CORPS OF ENGINEERS. UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE, GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS WEST OF THE 100TH MERIDIAN, Washington, D. C., July 8,1876. SIR : I have the honor to submit the following summary of the barometric work of the past field season, and of the office- work in connection therewith. The observations and work performed have been of the same character as in 1874, and reference is made to the report upon this subject in the annual report of that year for information other than is contained herein. The various parties of the California and Colorado sections of the expedition of 1875 were provided each with duplicate sets of instruments, comprising cistern and aneroid barometers, psychrometers, and pocket thermometers, and with the necessary books of record and printed instructions with reference to observations, instruments, and books. The barometers, psychrometers, and thermometers were made by James Green, of New York; the aneroids with attached thermometers by Casella, of London. Comparisons of all instruments were made at Washington, D. C., with the standards of the United States Signal Service, and again at Pueblo, Colo., and Los Angeles, Cal., before final distribution among the various parties, and their initial errors of indices determined. Daily comparisons among the instruments of each party served as checks upon their indications and afforded the means of detecting changes in instrumental errors, and the errors of such instruments as were fitted with new tubes during the season. The corrections for capillarity in barometers were included in the errors determined, having first been corrected for approximately, by shifting the scale to agree with the computed effects. The observations taken during the field season were mainly for psychrometrical purposes, the time spent in the field being too short, and the observations at any one place too few to be of much service in general meteorological investigations in a region where general climatologioal features are as well known as may be given by cursory observations. For the California section two reference stations were established by the survey, one at Los Angeles, Cal., and another at Fort Mohave, Ariz. The altitude of the cistern of the barometer at Los Angeles was determined by a line of levels run from the United States Coast Survey tide- gauge at the Wilmington breakwater, by Mr. Carpenter, of this survey; that of Fort Mohave, Ariz., was carefully computed by Lieutenant Berg-land, by referring barometrical observations there by daily and monthly means to corresponding observations at Los Angeles, and this determination was afterward checked and verified by referring to the Signal Service barometers at San Francisco and San Diego, Cal., and Santa Fe\ N. Mex. Camps, where parties remained several days, were taken as reference stations for all observations made in their vicinities; the camps themselves being referred to the stations above mentioned. |
