UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. BERKELEY, CAL. E. W. HILGARD, Director. BULLETIN NO. 82. The Lakes of ihe San Joaquin Valley. The rapid contraction by evaporation cf the three lakes of the upper San Joaquin valley, the consequent concentration of their waters into alkaline lyea too strong for animal life, and the nature of the soils laid bare on their mar- gins, have formed the subjects of investigation and discussion in former reports of this depart- ment, especially in connection with the recla- mation and cultivation of alkali soils. (See re- ports for 1879, pp. 30 to 39; 1880, pp. 12 to 33; 1882, pp. 56 to 60; 1884, pp. 61 to 69; 1886, re- vised reprint from report of 1880: 14 Alkali lands, Irrigation and Drainage in their mutual rela- tions," 45 pp. ) It is a matter of regret that it has not been possible to pursue the subject by per- sonal visits as systematically as its practical im- portance and theoretical interest might have warranted; for we are here in presence of a group of phenomena that have been repeated many timeB in past geological epochs, and for the study of which, in their physical, chemi- cal and biological aspects, opportunity is not often afforded. Hence, while the information and data here given are of necessity incomplete and fragmentary, they are of interest as afford- ing an insight into processes regarding which but little is thus far on record; and their com- munication may pern? pj serve to incite others having the opportunity to do so, to a closer study of the progressive changes. For a better understanding of the situation in the Kern and Tulare basins, the following statements from former reports are reprinted : "A personal examination of Kern lake, and of the region lying between it and Buena Vista lake, as well as of the Mussel Slough country, made under the auspices of the United States census, in March, 1880, satisfied me that in none of these rich agricul- tural sections could the slightest increase of alkali be safely risked ; and analyses subsequently made of the waters ot both Kern and Tulare lakes prove that a very few years' use of the water then filling either of these reservoirs would be promptly fatal to the productiveness of the lands irrigated. As regards Kern lake, this was obvious enough from a casual examination and tasting of the water. Having been shut off from the natural influx of Kern river for a number of years, it has been rapidly evaporating and receding from its former shores, so that at the time of my visit a difference in level of over four feet had been produced in 15 months, leaving high and dry a boat wharf built at that distance of time. About 18 months before, all the fish and turtles in the lake had suddenly died, creating a pestilential atmosphere by their deajy; and even the mussels were now mostly dead, a few maintaining a feeble existence. A strong alkaline taste and soapy feeling of the water fully justified their choice of evils. The tule marsh, laid dry by the recession of the lake, was thickly crusted with alkali, and the tules were dead, except where still moistened by the water of the lake, show- ing that the latter was not yet too strong for such hardy vegetable growth, albeit fatal to animal life. " Buena Vista lake was stated to be in a similar condition, but not yet quite so far advanced in evap- oration, and still maintaining some animal life in its waters, having lost its connection with the river more recently. Tulare lake is well known to be full of fish, and as it annually receives the overflow of Kern and the regular inflow of King's river, its evaporation and recession has been much slower; yet its water's edge is now distant several miles from the former shore line, and as the water of the rivers is more and more absorbed by irrigation it will doubtless continue to recede until a point is reached at which the regular seepage from the irrigated lands will balance the evaporation. This epoch would seem, however, to be quite in the future as yet, for the rate of recession has, appar- ently, not sensibly changed in the last few years. It is not likely in any case that the water of the lake will be more abundant or less impregnated with min- eral matter than is now the case, at the time when the state of equilibrium shall have been reached. " With the lights now before us, it can hardly be regretted that the old Westside ditch, which was to irrigate the lower country with the corrosive waters of Tulare lake, was not successful. The lake level is now several feet below the bottom of that outlet, and the lake keeps receding annually, and its alkali becomes stronger as the mass of the water decreases. It is%lirficult to say where it will stop; but if, as is probable, a slate of equilibrium is reached whenever the waters of Kern and King's rivers shall have fully fiUed the parched depths of the plains by a more of soda and common .alt with .om. Gl.ub.rt jreneral svstem of irrigation, it is not at all probable salts. , fh^t The lake water will thereby become fresher; on The insoluble part collate of *W* m **\°"' the contrary, such seepage water will be likely to bonatea of calcium and magnesium with aome bring into it the alkali now dried up in the lower 8 i|i oa an( j alumina (probably clayey matter), strata, and the annual evaporation will concentrate Tfc bs seen from a comparison of this an- the solution more and more. It would certainly be alvgi3 witn tnoae ma de in 18S0, that the aohd most desirable to utilize the lake as a great reservoir J j k had iooreate d wry for irrigation supply; but to render this pract'cable ™™f D ™ fc . . the e , ht tt , a> aD a that its it would be necessary first to empty out or displace nearly hum »" "'^"^ * » tV a. f Ihe mass oV alkaline water at present occupymg the concentration approximated basin. The discussion of the feasibility of such an Kern like in 1880. Yet it »PP"" # tDa * aD undertaking, however, belongs to the province of the abundance of fish survived, at least of certain engineer corps. kinds, although, as will bo aeen below, the " The analyses referred to above gave the following mut8 J 8 had already succumbed. q results (in grains per gallon): Kern Tulare Tne condition of Tulare Lake In Winter Date cf taking fample March. January. Having been informed in November, 1888, ^b1.^^p^::.v.v.::::iS^ "3 *** ," ^ fi8h '? **« we '« Potassium sulphate ) 3.24 shea's, I concluded that the water of that Sodium fhloride (common salt) V115 41 22.77 b^sin had by evaporation at length reached the Sodium sulphate (^Giaube^s salt) ) 17 S3 Hmifc of eDduraDCe 0 f its inhabitant!, who had Sodium carbonate (ial-sjda) 54 SI 2i Md . w \ . _ . Insoluble after evaporation 9 29 8.3fl probably found themselves unfit to aurv.ve the Calcium carbonate 2.97 altered surroundings. Ujsirin^ to verify the Magnesium carbonate 4.95 facts> x in January, 1889, made arrangements Organic' matter" and water. V/.'.V.V.'.V.'.V 2243 2 23 to visit the lake in company with Mr. J. Q. Woodbury of the S a*e Fish Commission; but "To convey to those unaccustomed to the con- being delayed by imperative duties, I requested sideration of such matters an idea of the j£r. Woodbury to proceed alone, and while Tf n J ng ,K°/ .f he ftjft ? Ur f S ' f il miy be making his observations on the economic side stated that the solid contents of river wa- - «. m «. i . " " ters vary usually from 5 to 12 grains per gallon. The 01 ^ e ? aeat l OD .' to collect a eample of water and water of Tulare lake, where it is undiluted by the in- ™ ch other data as m ght present themselves, flow of King's river, is therefore about 10 times, He accordingly visited the northeastern r art of and that of Kern lake about 26 times, stronger than the lake, near the mouth of Cross croek, during an average river water. Even this, however, con- the firet week in February, and on his return veys but an inadequate idea of the relation sustained communicated to me the following inUrtstiue by these waters to organic life. The average sea account, which is here reproduced bv his water (containing mainly common salt) is about ten consent. times stronger than the water of Kern lake as re- a o t fch* train T m .t ™.i gards its solid contents; yet in sea water, fresh-water ^ * ™ \u™L™} Be * era .l «entlemen who fish live freely during part of the season, while in "** al ??« ™ ^P^PP 0 *'' 6 th * Uke » and Kern lake the fish died at a time when, according to was ™ d b >* tha * rulare City was thv best a minimum estimate, the water must have had about P ,aoe to start from for a visit to the fishing- twice the strength of Tulare lake, or about one- grounds. I engaged team and driver to take thirteenth of the strength of sea water. This shows me to the fishery near Gross creek, a dhtanoe strikingly the deadliness of the Kern lake alkali as of about 25 miles, according to the driver*! compared with sea salt, or, in other words, of Kern statement, and not less than 20 by my own lake water as compared with tide water." estimate. At this point the lake rt ceded last year about half a mile, and in consuiuenca th« Condition of the Lake Water in June. fishermen were compelled to movo their posi- 188a tion about a mile farther int} the lake. Their Early in June, 1888, at my request, Mr. B. p °S nd f . or * he *? sh i ?, hal i f a mile from *he «hore F. Moore, Patron of the Experimental Station 8e » n e is pulled 2§ miles farther out mto near Tulare City, sent a messenger to obtain a th V a . e \, lfc f 8 a^wara pulled in by a horse sample of the lake water in order to ascertain a ™ windlass located about 200 yards from the the progress of evaporation. The sample was B ? < ? 1 e, #1 011 a P utform where the hor^ is aho taken 2£ miles out in the lake, 8 miles cast of Slab J r r, f1, . . . the mouth of King's river, not far from the ... ij^y catch about 12o pounds at a haul at Crosj creek fisheries. thls n j he . r y; the fish come in ( n the eeining The water had a general greenish turbidity Rronndi in warm weather rather than when it and considerable greenish sedimont at the bot- 18 cold; and as the same ground is continually torn of the bottles. This sediment showed un- 8ein !. 1 *9«» »«* v„y soft and do not keep well, also are very insipid. I!?f P a r* c0nFist8 chiefly of carbonate 41 The perch is certainly a very fine fish, largej 3 bright and clean-looking; they are also very " All the shore of the lake for miles, as far as I good eating, as I had occasion to verify. These could see, wa? ttrewn with mussel or clam- perch have enormous mouths, and in that cf shells; the surface of the ground was white every one in the pound can be seen a * shiner,' with them, and the wheels of the carriage (or 'slick,' as they call the fish) with the tail crushed through them as though more than stickiog out of the great mouth, being drawn half the substance of the ground was actually farther in as the process of digestion proceeds, made up of shells, as I have no doubt is really One perch which I took along to have cooked, the casa. They told me that these shells ex- I took by the gills, and looking down his big tend here, as thickly as on top, down to the mouth, I saw the tail of a fish, which I readily depth of a hundred feet, as shown in the well got hold of with my fingers and pulled out. It referred to above. Not a live clam can be was six inches long and only its head partly di- found in the lake now. gested. The fishermen say that all these perch " I have subsequently been informed that ten when caught have fish in their mouths, in years ago there were large numbers cf live mus- proof of which he pulled out one at random sels in Tulare lake and that the hogs need to live with a dip net, and showed the perch with a on them then; that they would wade out into the shiner's tail still out of the mouth. ♦lake and plunge their heads under water, get " The fishermen state that no catfish are now hold of a mussel and hold their noses up in the caught, while two and three years ago they air and chew them up. would get a wagon-load at each haul; also, that "All the (seven or eight) fisheries are located trout are now seldom caught, although they within four miles of Cross creek mouth; no used to be very abundant. The men expressed fishing is now or appears to have been done no opinion as to the cause of the death of the near the mouth of King's river, 10 miles to fish, but stated that the catfish especially were northward, for the reason (according to the drifted upon the shore, dead, by thousands. fishermen) that the water is too shallow. "Catfish, however, are found by millions at "For the whole distance of 20 miles from present in the creeks and sloughs that run into Tulare City the country is of remarkable the lake. A gentleman who lives on his farm fertility, almost level, and where put into fully ten miles from the lake, and who fishes in wheat the growth was strong, even to within a small way for his own table, is of opinion two miles of the shore of the lake, where the that the destruction of the catfish and carp is land had been plowed through solid tule roots, caused by their being driven on the shallows The growth was very compact, strong, and of a by ^ the wind, and left in shallow pools beauiiful green color, and had stooled out which, when the water recedes, soon become so abundantly; which, to my mind, showed that hot that the fish die. I questioned him very the rawness of the soil or the quantity c f alkali particularly about this; and as he is very intel- had but little effect upon the growth. For ligent and his father was a fisherman whom he long distances among the tules alfileria covered frequently assisted in his work, his views are the ground. I had no iJeaof the value and ex- entitled to weight. He has a boat and sailed tent of the arable land of Tulare county until I around the lake last summer, and states that rode over the immense extent of that plain to the^ deepest part of the lake, in the channel the lake. I think the time will come when which runs from south to north in the direc- Tulare will be one of the very best of the agri tion of the old outlet into the San Joaquin cultural counties of the State, river, does not exceed 20 feet; that outside of " Speaking of the future of the lake — it must that channel it is generally not over four feet, have been a good deal lower than it is now, for gradually shallowing toward the shore. Not- near the mouth of Cross creek there are many withstanding this shallowness, the action of stumps which were uuder water only last year, the wind should mingle the different portions and among which the fishermen used to get pretty thoroughly and render the alkali about their nets entangled; these stumps are now just even throughout. at the water's edge. Of course they could not " Before starting on this trip he was told that have grown under water. Again, in a little surface he would have a good wind throughout his well near the landing place at the fishery, there journey, as the wind blew from the center of is at the depth of about 18 inches, all around, a the lake toward the shore. He states that he ring of blackish organic matter or mold, quite found it to be true; that he had the wind distinct from the yellowish clayey earth both 1 abeam ' all the way. above and below it. It looked as if it nrght be " The two bottles of water I sent you were decomposed tules, and if so, the water must taken at various distances from the shore out have been off the ground long enough to allow to the fish-pound. Although the fishery is lo- these tules to be decomposed and made into cated off the mouth of Cross creek, as there is soil. There are now under this water about no wat^r in that creek for several miles out 200,000 acres of land of what might be made from the lake, the water of that portion could the best quality, and this land under alfalfa not have been perceptibly freshened by its in- would be worth many times what it is now flux at this season, although some seepage under water, for fishes. Why would it not be doubtless occurs. The water of the lake is a good idea to drain this lake down four feet very muddy and has a nasty taste and smell; lower, to the banks of that channel, into the very much like trai of a well about a mile from San Joaquin river, through a canal that would shore and 100 feet deep, which was, however, at the same time serve as a water- way up to drank by the people at the farmhouse as well that old channel in the lake through which as by their stock, and left them all healthy, boats could go with freight? I think that by One of the horses of my team, however, was re- this scheme in a short tims all the surplus al- laxed in its bowels all the way to Tulare, and kali would be drained into the ocean from the the same happened to the driver and to my- lake and the surrounding country, for as the 8 elf. fresh water from the mountains is spread over 4 the land it mutt sink down and gradually push the more alkaline waters down the canal. S3 the land would in time be freed from alkali and the canal would be kept full by underdrainage, which the lake now receives and evaporates." Present Composition of Tulare Lafce Water. The sample of water sent by Mr. Woodbury waB quite turbid, partly from fine mud, partly from the preeence of greenish micro-organisms. Its taste was flattish saline, and quite nause- ous to the stomach. Exposed to the light, it soon became filled with rapidly increas- ing green gelatinous films and cccci, the exact nature of which was not investigated. Upon filtratioD, which progressed very slow- ly, and did not clear the water completely (as is usual with waters impregnated with alkaliDe carbonates), considerable organic matter still remained in solution, and had to be removed by ignition before proceeding with the analysis. In presence of an excess of carbonate of soda, this ignition could not interfere with the accu- racy of the determinations of acidic ingredients. The result was as follows: Analysis of Lake Tulare Water v Specific gravity, 1.0050 at 62.5°. Grab s per Parts in gallon. 10.000. Total solMs 303.07 61.83 Soluble af tor t vapoi a Hon 297. 97 1*7. 03 S odium chloriue (comuioii salt) 95.79 16.40 Sodium sulphate (Glauber's sail) 73.76 12.63 So dium carbonate (sal-aoc a) 94.74 16.22 Potassium tulpbate 15.68 2.6 < Insoluble after evaporation (i.'J? 1.1'J Calcium sulphate (gypsuua) 1.47 .25 Cakium carbonate 1.07 .18 Magnesium carbonate 2.55 .44 Silica 1-87 .32 Organic matter and water 16.12 2.76 The following table summaiizes the composi- tion of the Tulare lake water at the three dif- ferent periods: 1880. 1888. 1S89. Date of taking sample Jan'y. Jun»\ Feb'y. TotaUoliu contents 81.80 204.7 303.07 Soluble after evaporation. .71.11) 180.9 279.97 Sodium cblonde (common sal'). 22. 77 95.79 Sodium sulphate (Ulauber'ssalt) 17.23 73.76 Sodium carbonate (oal-soda) 27.92 74.3 94.74 Potassium tulphate 3.24 15.68 Insoluble after evaporation 8.86 8.7 6.97 Calcium sub hate (g^ psum) 1.47 Calcium carbonate 2.97 1.07 Magnesium carbonate 4.95 2.55 Silica 44 1^87 Organic matter and water 2.28 14.1 16.12 The figures in the above table hardly require ♦Analysis by Mr. E. M. Hilgard, Special Student in the Agricultural Laboratory. comment unless it is to draw attention to the extremely rapid increase of the solid contents of the water between June, 1888, and Febru- ary, 1889, as compared with the effect produced during the previous 7£ years. The latter was about 2£ times or 150 per cent on the whole, or an average of 13 per cent a year; while in the eight months preceding the laat examina- tion, the increase was nearly 45 per cent. It should be noted that these eight months were remarkable for very great evaporation else- where on the coast, also; and that they formed the end of three years of rather deficient rainfall in the State. The more abundant moisture of the season just passed, may have stopped or ♦perhaps even reversed the process; a point which will receive attention within a short time. It will then be possible to predict with some degree of approximation how nearly the condition of natural equilibrium between the evaporation from the lake surface and the seepage from the streams and irrigated plains referred to above, is being approached, and to forecast the future of the lake and of its inhab- itants if left to themselves. Whether or not it will be expedient to inter- fere with the natural course of events, either for the establishment of a great irrigation res- ervoir, or (as suggested by Mr. Woodbury) for the reduction of the lake to a mere water- way in order to reclaim the lane's now covered by it, is a question too complex to be discussed here. The answer will in a measure be deter- mined by the decision of another question, \iz. : whether the increased saline strength of the lake water is due wholly to evaporation, or io part to concentrated solutions of alkali ex- tracted from underlying beds by the inward seepage. If a consideration of the area and depth lost by the lake within the last year shall show that there has been a distinct acces- sion of alkali salts from the outside, the nee of the drained lake bed as an irrigation reser- voir will be of very doubtful practicability, as it would imply an annual addition of such salts to those already contained in the natural soils irrigated therewith. It is hoped that all persons who may, from their own observation, be able to throw light upon the history of the recession of these lakes, will communicate the facts so as to place them on record. It is with the hope of obtaining such additional dat* that this bulletin is issued in advance of the general report of which its subject-matter will formapait. E. W. HlLOARD. Berkeley, Cat , June 15 t 1889. . fa