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<br /> <br />11'/ :: <br />10 <br /> <br />;1 E T R 0 POLl TAN W ATE R 0 [ S T R [ C T <br /> <br />tial mass diagram of Fig. 1. The great variation in precipitation <br />between years and also between months is shown graphically in <br />Fig, 2. Itainfal! data for each year since records have been kept <br />in Los Angeles are given ill Fig. 3, <br /> <br />Run-off <br />Sites for the missions and pueblos of the Spaniards were neces- <br />sarily limited to the banks of the few unfailing surface streams, <br />and the Plaza and Old Town of Los Angeles were so located. For <br />the Los Angeles River, now generally so dry and dusty, a typical <br />southwestern upside down stream, was throughout the nineteenth <br />century a never-failing source of water supply for the potential <br />metropolis. Under Mexican rule the ranchos at an early date pre- <br />empted throughout the basin the site of every perennial spring or <br />cienega (all now dry so many years that even their sites and <br />former existence seem entirely unknown to present residents). <br />Notable among these were "The Tears of Santa Monica", where <br />ocean-going vessels in earlier years replenished their water supplies <br />and from which the present beach city was named; and Centinella <br />Spring, on the site of which the Inglewood city pumps now draw <br />the municipal water supply from a depth of 150 feet, or well below <br />sea level. <br />As such springs and the few spring-fed streams were the sole <br />source of water supply during the long, dry summers, irrigation <br />development was very sharply limited. At Los Angeles, an irri- <br />gated area of ] ,500 acres at the time of the American occupancy <br />had grown to only 8,400 acres a generation later, and in 1879 <br /> <br />1892-93 <br /> <br />YEARS <br />1893-94 <br /> <br />1894-95 <br /> <br />~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > u z m a ~ > ~ > ~ ~ ~ > u z m a ~ > w > ~ ~ ~ > u z matt > ~ <br />UJ 5~~UO"'''lWO(Q.<~ .J;:)ll.vow<C(w<1l. <z .J;:)ll.VOWo<I wolQ..qZ <br />J: ,o(i/I0Z 0.,1&.'2:0(:1.., =:O(:::O%C"'lL::I:o(:l~ ~<:r:OZQ"IL:E'O(:E~ <br />U <br />Z <br /> <br />'!: <br /> <br /> <br />o 0 <br /> <br />'" 0 '" ... .. .... ., <br />.... .... N . ... .. .... _ <br />00,,",00.00 <br /> <br />o <br />" " <br />o <br /> <br />TOTAL 26.28 <br /> <br />TOTAL 6.73 <br /> <br /> <br />TOTAL 16.11 <br /> <br />-' <br />-' <br />" <br />"- <br />Z <br /><( 0 ;; <br />a ci <br /> <br />Fig. 2-Typical high, [ow, and average rainfall )'ear.~ <br />