406      THE HISTORY OF NEVADA

CHAPTER XVI.

BY SAM P. DAVIS.

            The Comstock Lode and Gold Hill, Virginia City and Silver City, are supplied with water by the Virginia and Gold Hill Company. In the early days Comstockers had but a limited supply produced from the springs and mining tunnels on the slope of Mt. Davidson. This water was very scarce and high priced and was brought into the city on the backs of mule.

            Ned Foster, generally known as "Lame Foster" was practically the water company. He developed the springs and sold the water by the barrel or gallon to his customers and in the winter he packed thousands of sacks with snow, which he stored in the mining tunnels and sold at a stiff profit when cool drinks were in demand and no ice anywhere on the ledge.

            As the population increased, additional water became a necessity and Marlette Lake, named after General Marlette, was selected as a source of supply. Herman Schussler, an eminent hydraulic engineer of San Francisco, was selected to take charge of the work. He planned and installed the first pipe line which brought the water from the high Sierras into Virginia City, thirty-five miles away. The difference in elevation between the intake and discharge is 465 feet on pipe lines Nos. I and 2 and on No. 3 is 565 feet.

            The pipe lines, which are now three in number, run up and down nine canyons and are in the form of inverted syphons. The greatest perpendicular pressure is at the lowest point of Washoe Valley, 1,720 feet. When the water was first turned in, this tremendous pressure, which registered 82o pounds on Nos. 1 and 2 pipes at Lake View, and 910 pounds on No. 3, was the heaviest known at that time on any wafer pipe in the world. It began spurting out in tiny pin holes which gradually increased in size until fountains played hundreds of feet in the air and finally burst the pipes. The main difficulty was that the lead calked in the joints would not hold. Capt. J. B. Overton, the superintendent of the company, immediately corn-

WATER SUPPLY OF THE COMSTOCK     407

menced the work of repairing and set all the blacksmiths he could find making wrought iron clamps which were placed at each joint with heavy bolts and prevented the lead from being forced out. The joints then stood the strain, and the pure, soft water of the Sierras, the product of almost perpetual snow, was landed in Virginia City amid demonstrations of public rejoicing and scenes of festivity.

            Marlette Lake, from which the main supply is taken, has a storage capacity of over two billions of gallons. The masonry dam which impounds the water is over fifty feet high. After leaving the lake, the water is conducted five miles through a covered flume and thence through a tunnel four thousand feet which pierces the summit which forms the eastern rim of the Tahoe basin. From this point it proceeds through other covered flumes which convey the waters of Hobart Creek and other mountain streams to the intake of the three pipes which convey it across Washoe Valley to its final destination in Virginia City. Two twelve-inch and one ten-inch pipe perform the work. The first pipe was laid by Herman Schussler and the two others by Capt. J. B. Overton, and after a continuous service of over thirty years, they are still in excellent condition and capable of delivering seven millions of gallons to the Comstock every twenty-four hours.

            The works of the company include forty-five miles of covered flumes, four storage reservoirs, twenty-one miles of ten and twelve-inch pipe lines and seventeen miles of distributing mains costing in the neighborhood of three and a half millions of dollars.

            Of late years the unwatering of the Comstock has been carried on with the assistance of hydraulic elevators supplied with water from these lines. The water goes down into the mines through twelve-inch pipes to a depth of 2,700 feet. The lower end of the pipe curving upward discharges from an inch nozzle, sends a stream up into a large pipe and carries with it, under tremendous pressure, the waters in which it is submerged, and the water thus elevated to the 1,650 level, finds its outlet through the Sutro tunnel. The nozzles of these pipes are of phosphor-bronze and last but a short time owing to the great friction exerted by the water at the point of discharge, equalled nowhere in the world.

            In view of the recent developments in the Comstock mines, the water company has practically rebuilt its flumes under the supervision of James M. Leonard, the present superintendent, and the entire system is now in a fine state of efficiency.