eleven o'clock
When this two hundred and fifty yards of ditch line had been widened and deepened to correspond to the rest , water would flow of summers in a small river from the dam down to the broad acres of Perro Creek ranch . Hour after hour the steady labour proceeded -- plows ran ; flat scrapers and wheeled fresnos followed , scooped up the earth , bore it to the banks above ; horses tugged and strained ; men toiled , pausing only to thaw their feet and hands at fires burning by the ditch or to drain great tin-cups of the scalding coffee that the cooks dipped from cans . And steadily the excavation widened and deepened hour by hour , the slope of the sides becoming apparent , the banks rising higher and the ditch assuming its desired shape and size . At eleven o'clock the cooks wheeled immense canisters of sliced beef and bread among the workmen , who seized the food and ate it as they worked . At midnight the plows were cutting near the bottom , and the work was going faster , as the frost did not strike this deep into the soil . At one o'clock in the morning , amid thickening snow , the last scraperfuls of dirt were going out , while the engineers , with their long rules , were checking depths and slopes . `` By golly , she 's about done ! ''