Persons proposing to make their residence in San Diego very naturally ask in regard to the quality of water and the adequacy of its supply. No one will be disposed to build where their houses cannot be protected from fire, and the grounds round about them improved; or where wholesome water for drinking, and soft water for washing cannot be obtained. Can then good water for these purposes be furnished, sufficient to meet the demands of the population when San Diego has grown to be a large city? We answer authoritatively, Yes.

It is true that many of the wells, heretofore sunk, the depth of which has been quite limited, have not yielded soft or pure water, and for a time, the impression was prevalent that the city would be compelled to get its supply from the San Diego River, or from the Sweetwater, by pipes from five to ten miles in length. But the San Diego Water Company, controlled by the good judgement and indomitable energy of its President, Henry M. Covert, have solved the problem satisfactorily. Their wells are now completed, and they are prepared to supply good artesian water in unlimited quantity.

This Company was incorportated February 13th, 1873, with a Capital Stock of $90,000. Their place of business is San Diego. The water supply is obtained from artesian wells located a half mile from the Bay, in the south-west corner of the City Park.

These wells, two in number, are three hundred feet deep, tapping a running stream eleven and one-third feet in depth, beneath a stratum of fifty feet of solid rock; they discharge fifty thousand gallons per hour. The first reservoir that receives this volume is a cylindrical shaft one hundred and seventy feet deep and twelve feet in diameter. Its bottom is laid in concrete, and it is curbed to the surface with hard brick and cement. The second reservoir, with an altitude above mean tide of one hundred and seventeen feet, has a capacity of about seventy thousand gallons. Water is forced from the first to the second reservoir, which is larger than required to meet the present demand, by one of Hooker's double-acting suction and force pumps, worked by steam, with a capacity of forty thousand gallons per hour. From this reservoir the city is supplied by pipes running through all the principal streets, from which pipes water can be projected, without the use of "cranes," to the tops of the highest buildings. The machine shops, apparatus and machinery of these extensive works are complete, ona a massive scale, and finished in the most workmanlike manner. The water, also, is very pure, sweet and wholesome.

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