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distance down the river to beds of gravel forming natural filters, from which perfectly clear water can be obtained at all times. This is the same water as that in Lake McDonald, but it is purified by filtering through these beds. It will be obtained by sinking cribs in the gravel and pumping from them by electrical energy transmitted from the power house At present the amount of work done varies from 800 to 3,000 horsepower. This is employed for waterworks and electric lighting, and for running all the car lines and most of the manufacturing enterprises in the city, such as planing mills, printing presses, and many others. It has been demonstrated that it is cheaper for a man who uses no more than 200 horsepower to rent his power from the city in the form of electrical energy and to use an electric motor instead of a steam engine.

Up to the present time most of the earnings of the plant have been spent in improving and adding to it; but it is hoped that in the near future these will increase and materially relieve the people of the heavy burden of taxation under which they now labor and enable them to pay off the debt incurred in construction.

Another notable water power which may in the future be partly used for irrigation is that supplied by the Comal Springs at New Braunfels. These springs burst from the base of the hills at many points for a distance of a mile or more and form the head waters of Comal River. New ones can be made at any time by blasting in the limestone rock along the line of those already existing. The fall is so great for the first half mile that no difficulty is found in carrying the water by a simple canal to the point where the accumulated flow can be utilized to good advantage. At present the power is used to operate, a cottonseed-oil mill, a flour mill, and an electric-light plant owned by the Landa estate, on whose property the springs are situated. The power used amounts to about 500 horsepower, which can be increased almost indefinitely, if desired.

SAN ANTONIO AND VICINITY.

Under this head is included a description of irrigation works at San Antonio, and also in the areas southerly and southeasterly near San Antonio and Guadelupe rivers down to the Gulf coast. The irrigation ditches at San Antonio are historically the most interesting in the State, for here are found the earliest systems and structures, which have been in use for more than a century. Additional interest is derived from the association of the ditches with the early missions and with the efforts of the Franciscan fathers to settle the Indians upon these lands and employ them in agriculture. The old missions, now in ruins, were rendered habitable by these ditches, and the lands adjacent were the garden spot of the frontier, making possible the growth of the city which now is the center of civilization and trade of the Southwest. These ditches are now almost completely concealed