Newport v. Temescal Water Co.

Perris Valley is a basin of forty or fifty square miles in extent. The surface soil is of inferior character, arid and alkaline. At a depth varying from eight to forty feet below the surface the land consists of unstratified silt, detritus, and gravels. The voids in this soil carry water, and the water-bearing soils are from one hundred to four hundred feet in depth. Contiguous to Perris Valley is Menefee Valley, a somewhat similar though smaller tract of land. The surface soil of the Menefee Valley is of better quality than that of Perris Valley, and, like the latter, rests on water-bearing…