Page 5 - 1915, Springs of CA.

INTRODUCTION.

By W. C. MENDENHALL.

In 1903 the United States Geological Survey began an investigation
of the underground water of California, generally with financial coop-
eration on the part of the State. Since that year ten papers on the
underground water of the State have been issued by the Survey, each
representing an investigation that has been completed. The field
work which is to serve as the basis for two additional papers has also
been done and the reports are in preparation. Investigations have
been begun in two other areas in the State and their results will
eventually be assembled and published.
Since a period soon after the inception of the California work those
responsible for its conduct have realized the desirability of a special
study of the springs, particularly those which yield mineral waters
and which are utilized to a greater or less extent by citizens of the
State and by tourists as recreation and health resorts. It did not
become practicable to begin this work until the summer of 1908,
when Mr. G. A. Waring, who had assisted in some of the earlier
California studies and had investigated for the Survey certain areas
in southern Oregon and Washington, was assigned to the task of
collecting and assembling the necessary data.
California, with an area of 158,000 square miles, is the second
largest State in the Union. It exhibits wide geographic diversity,
since it includes the lowest area in the United States Death Valley,
276 feet below sea level and the highest Mount Whitney, 14,501
feet above the sea; and accompanying this geographic diversity
there is a corresponding range in scenic effects, climate, and vegetation.
The records obtained at meteorological stations in the Salton Sink
indicate a maximum temperature of 130° in the shade, the highest of
record within the continental United States. It is probable that
minimum temperatures on the higher peaks, like Mount Whitney
and Mount Shasta, approach the minimum within our boundaries.
Rainfall records in the most arid sections of the southern deserts of
the State represent the extreme of aridity in the United States,
with averages of less than 3 inches per annum and periods of 12
months or more with only traces of rain, whereas the precipitation
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