Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-05-27

the much-needed gold, putting no
more debris into the streams than if done by
the me st primitive methods occuuying ages
The wild slickens agitator, like the bull in
furiated from seeing blood, can only see dam
age resulting from mining. and bellows that
the mines must and shall be stopped, and.
without reason or knowledge, pictures future
ruin from hydraulic mining, including the
total destruction of the navigable rivers,
burying the entire valley under debris, filing
up the bay and harbor of San Francisco, and
next will proclaim the great Pacific ocesn
will be turned into hydraulic dump, and it
too destroyed for navigable purposes, and
eventually be the means Of sffording an easy
access for Chinese invasion and conquest. =.
NO DAMAGE
Whatever has yet been done to San Fran
cisco bay by mining operations, nor is there
any possibility of its ever being done. Its
great distance from the mines, an immense
level PLAIN intervening, renders it impossible
tor the detrltus to be carried there but in So
luton. Investigations have proved that the
mud flats of the bay are almost entirely
caused by agricultural disturbance of the soil.
The destruction of the navigable rivers from
hydraulic mining is also impossible. This IL
dustry does not increase the flow Of water
on the contrary, it stores it during the food
season, and adds materially to the flow at low
water when it ID meat needed. Depth Of
water is the essential to a nsvigabe river,
and whether the bed is ten feet higher or
lower, does not matter, if it is confined to its
channel and the volume retained. There is
no question OF damage to this essential from
mining operations. 1t is true lands are COW
cred, levees have had to be built, and i'm
provements have been destroyed. But the
land so covered again makes
coon AND Productive BOIL
In most instances better than the original.
Then only the improvements not the land.
can be charged as destroyed. Even the land
near the foothills, now overlooked with coarse
tailings, presenting desert-like appearance,
will, in the future, have its use, and be OF
great value. Neither will the damage in the
future be as great as in the past if mining is
continued indefinitely. Hydraulic mining,
until recent years, has been almost exclusively
confined to the surface gravel, which is COM
posed mostly Of clay. sand and loan. the per-
centage of rock being comparatively small.
The rivers, canyons and ravines have been
filled with this material for years, Bear river
alone being filed by one continuous deposit
for twelve miles, ranging in depth from fifty
to two hundred feet, and in width from three
hundred feet to half mile, and continues in
a descending proportion, except in occasional
canyons, where the bed is narrow and the
banks precipitous, until it reaches the plains.
Yet of this vast supply OF
SURFACE GRAVEL
The floods have moved only the lighter por-
ton, which, reaching the low grades of the
valley, have there deposited only that in
solution, and the lightest sands being carried
farther, filling the beds and low places along
the rivers. The same power that carried 1t
down the valley will again pick it up when
the volume is sufficient, thus securing its own
bed. But the water will not move the coarser
material after it reaches the valley grade, its
specific gravity being greater than the sur
rounding soil. The science of hydraulics
teaches us that water will act on that which
offers the least resistance. The surface gravel
having been washed of some years ago, the
tendency of the navigable rivers have elnce
been to scour their beds, because the princi-
pal washing now being done is on the bottom
lead, which is composed of very heavy &C.
mented material, the larger portion being
rock. 1t requires enormous heads OF water
and steep grades to move this deposit, and
when dumped into the broad streams where
THE WATER SPREADING,
Loses its power, it there remains covering the
former deposit, and acting az ballast re-
tarding the flow Of debris to the valley. The
hydraulic mines are now tenehting the
farmer on the same principle that they would
be benefited if come one would pave with
rock the loose deposit now in the streams.
This is exactly what the hydraulic miners are
now doing, as q visit to our mountain river
beds will prove. Another erroneous impress
sion prevailing among some uniformed per-
sons is, that the entire Sierra Nevads noun
tains will eventually be hurled upon the val
ley. What is the fact, The gold-bearirg
deposit is merely river chanuel of few
hundred feet in width, aud from thirty TO
three hundred feet in depth, which extends
from north to south along the mountain sides.
being no more in comparison with the noun
tain range than the quartz vein is to the
mountain in which it ia located. A careful
view of the entire situation will convince any
competent person that there is
PRACTICAL SOLUTION
of the whole question, whereby all interests
will be protected. There is ample room IN
the beds of the rivers before any valuable
agricultural lands are reached to impound all
the debris now in, or remaining to be washed
into the streams. The brush dams have
failed to answer the purpose. Rock dams
will prove impracticsble, as will also blast
ing down the sides of the mountains. The
dams should be built where the grades are
light and the banks distant, to give capacity
and avoid great hight. The brush dam
system was the correct idea. but would not
stand the freshets. This can be overcome
by pile dams, the piles being driven sutf-
GENTLY close together for strength, securing
an even surface by boiling logs on top, facing
the piles with plank to hold the debris, and
strengthening with guys, or by second line
of piles. Any hight can be safely reached
by several lines of dams in terraces, thus
preventing the possibility of undermining the
foundation. which might occur from great
hight at one fall. This plan is not theoreti-
CAL as the writer has planned and super
intended the building of such dam, which
now stands across Bear river, near Colfax.
1t has stood the test, and no flood can re-
move it. Let the effort be made. Expert
ence will teach what is best.
1T IS ONLY QUESTION OF MEANS.
The end is protection to the farmer and i'm
munity to the miner. 1t is unjust to expect
the miner of to-day to take care Of the tail
ings of the early miner. The whole world
has been enriched by his work, and is it not
the duty of the Government to make small
expenditure to avert the injury resulting
from it? Make the showing, and there will
be no difficulty in getting the aid. Waste no
more money and effort in a suicidal war on
your friends. Unite with them for the com
mon good. Reflect. Be open to conviction,
and act wisely. In the words of an old
writer, at is a pleasure to stand on the
shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea ; a
pleasure to stand in the window Of a castle
and see battle and the adventures thereof;
but no pleasure is comparable to standing on
the vantage ground of truth "a hill not to be
commanded, and where the air is always
clear and serene), and to see the errors and
wanderings and mists and tempests in the
vale below, 80 always that this prospect be
with pity and not with swelling or pride.
Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have
mans mind move in charity rest in Provi-
dence and Turn on the poles OF truth"
T.. l.. MCCLURE,