e view is to be obtained.
We return now to Marlette and while drinking a cup of coffee prepared
for us by the hospitable caretaker, glean the following facts in
regard to the history and uses of Marlette Lake.

Marlette is an artificial lake, fifteen hundred feet above the level
of Lake Tahoe, and about three miles from its easterly shore. Its
waters are conveyed by tunnel, flume, etc., over the mountains, the
Washoe Valley and up the mountain again to Virginia City. Originally
the only supply of water available for Virginia City was from a few
springs and mining tunnels. This supply soon became insufficient and
many tunnels were run into hills both north and south from Virginia
for the express purpose of tapping water. These soon failed and it
became necessary to look for a permanent supply to the main range
of the Sierra Nevada twenty-five or more miles away. Accordingly
the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company called upon Mr. Hermann
Schussler, the engineer under whose supervision the Spring Valley
Water Works of San Francisco were constructed. After a careful survey
of the ground he found water at Hobart Creek, in the mountains on the
east side of Lake Tahoe, and in the spring of 1872, received orders to
go ahead and install a water system. He ordered pipe made to fit every
portion of the route. It had to pass across the deep depression of
Washoe Valley with water at a perpendicular pressure of 1720 feet,
equivalent to 800 pounds to the square inch.

The first operations were so successful that as needs grew the supply
flume was extended eight and a half miles to Marlette Lake, thus
making the total distance to Virginia City thirty-one and a half
miles. This Lake was named after S.H. Marlette, formerly Surveyor
General of Nevada, who was associated with W.S. Hobart, of San
Francisco, the owner of the land and one of the original projectors of
the Water Company. The site was a natural basin, the dam of which had
been broken down or eroded centuries ago. A dam was built in 1875, and
later raised eleven feet higher so as to afford more storage capacity.
The area of the lake is now about 600 acres (before the heightening
of the dam it was 300 acres), and its storage capacity is about two
billion gallons.

When the supply was enlarged a second pipe was laid alongside the
first with an equal capacity, each being able to convey 2,200,000
gallons every twenty-four hours. A third pipe was installed later. The
second and