A California Lumber Flume

The county of Fresno, Cal., boasts of a flume 52 miles long, built of timber throughout and designed for conveying lumber frorn the place of feiling in the Sierra Nevada mountains to the plains below. In section the flume is V shaped, the angle being 90 degrees. The V is 21 inches deep and for the most part 3 feet 7 inches across the top, this width being increased, however, at various points where a decrease in the grade necessitates a larger volume of water 'to carry the timber, the lower terminus being 5 feet 4 inches wide by 31 inches deep. The main supply of water is received from a lake near its head, but f our additional f eeders are led into it at different points along its length. The sides of the flume are constructed of lj-inch boards, and the structure is carried 011 trestle work for nearly the whole length, these trestles being as many as 130 feet high in some of the deep canyons crossed by the flume. The steepest grade is one of 1,200 feet to the mile, maintained for about 3,000