Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-04-15

produced by the hydraulic method, and
you will depreciate land values to an
extent infinitely greater than the highest
estimate that has been or could be made Of
all the depreciations of every kind that have
occurred as consequence of mining in the
whole period of its history. Taking the
American river and the mining upon it's
watershed, we find about thousand acres
affected by debris; not all of it, by any
means, injuriously affected-very little of it,
in fact, deprecated in value. In the vicinity
of Folsom and the foothills there, and the
lands on the American river from there ex-
tending to Brighton, and to the divide where
the water flows to the Costumes, there are
from 70. 600 to 100000 acres of agricultural
land. sill settled and improved, that are de.
pendent for value in a very great degree
upon the fact that mining is an oldestab-
lished and productive industry Much of
this mining is near these lands. Destroy
this industry, or discou. age or cripple it, and
infinitely greater injuries to land will result
! while it will not restore the value of the
lands already deprecated.
CONCLUSIONS.
I will conclude what I desire to say by
stating few of the general results, fairly
deducible from the whole testimony, which
in my mind clearly refute the charges made
| Ia GUiS COUl) iallI. L HTSI say LEiaL IIlS uiNi-
| cation of the Sacramento river has received
no permanent or substantial injury. The
navigation is good for the class of steamers
best adapted for the navigation of such a
river, as it was and as it is. It's commerce
would not be increased by any improvements
of its channels. The steamers are of as large
tonnage capacity as were the sidewheel
steamers in the period from 1850 to 1860.
There are large sand.bars on the concave
sides of the bends, but the bed of the river in
the channel has been raised in thirty-three
years only six feet. The navigation of the
river has not deterierated during the last
seven years. The maximum of deterioration
was reached in 1875, since which time it has
been better, and there is now at low water
seventeen feet in the channel in front Of
Sacramento and there was only eighteen to
nineteen feet in the greater part of its chan
mel in September, 1854
Second-The deposits of sediment both
from the Sacramento and the American
. rivers are upon an exceedingly limited area
Of the border lands. To some extent these
deposits are not injurious, even Immediately
after the deposit is made, and nearly all Of
it becomes good land after the lapse Of few
years. All the lands in Sacramento county
covered with debris to such an extent as to be
in any degree 10 urious, ere less than l per
cent. of the cultivated lands and less than
ene-third of per cent. of the inclosed lands,
and less than one-sixth OF per cent. OF all the
lands in the county.
Third-The mining operations Of 1919
1850, 1851 and 1852 filled the channel of the
American river on the north side of the city
two-thirds, and the sides of the channel three.
fourths, and along the Sacramento in front of
the city in considerable part of its channel
from one fifth to one fourth, and on the sides
of the channel from one-fourth to third.
The soundlngs of September, 1854, to which
have previously particularly referred, prove
those facts.
Fourth The increased hight of the water
in the Sacramento and in the lower part of
the American during food periods is due to
the confinement by levees, and much of the
accumulation of debris between the north
levee and the American river, AMI on the
north side of the American river, from its
mouth up to Brighton, is largely due to the
same cause. And on that | desire to make
the single comment that it must be apparent
to every one from the testimony here, and to
any one that will make any observation of it,
that this body of land north and east of the
city here, which constitutes nearly the whole
amount of the land which is injured or
claimed to be injured, received its covering Of
debris largely in consequence of the straight
ening of the course of the American river,
and the construction of the north levee, which
backs up the flood waters over these lands,
and necessarily, from year to year, deposited
more sediment upon them. In regard to the
injuries to other lands in the lower part Of
the county that have been made the subject
Of complaint here, | think there are no just
grounds at all for the opinions expressed here,
both in testimony and in argument imputiDg
to mining such as is practieed by defendant,
or to any kind of mining. the injuries OF sup
posed injuries suffered by those lands Tive
witnesses only are introduced. One of them.
Mr.. Upham, for long time was resident
on Sherman Island, aud ons Of them ever
since 1858 resident of Brannan I.lani.
MIR. Upham, of Sherman Island, tells US
that there was no cultivation of any kind
there until 1856. l. is within the memory Of
every man who ever passed up and down the
Sacramento river in early days, before the
advent of railroads, that these islands il that
section of the country were low and flat,
scarcely visible above the water, and covered
with growth of tule water grass. At Sher-
man Island the ordinary tides flowed over
the banks. Mr.. Upham tells US that twenty
five acres On that island, in different places
four or five acres in spot-rise and fall with
the tides. In other words, it tioated-it ha6
not solid foundation. That island contains
IA, 900 acres. Mr.. Upham says that in the
big food of 1862 the water was foot higher
over that isl.nd than il ever has been since.
And our friends on the other side tell US that
the fl )od Of 1862 was not much of food
was not increased in hight by any debris.
The tides flowed into the interior OF
that island ordinarily through the sloughs
that run into it in almost every
direction, one of them being eight miles long.
Brannan Island is little above that, anc
naturally would be little higher 1t con
tains about 5000 acres. 1t is complete
island, bounded by the Sacramento river, by
Old river, jackson slough and Seven Mile
, slough. and we are told that the tides there
Just rise up on the banks. The tides formerly
rose four and half feet, and did not flow
over the natural banks, but they entered the
island and spread over the interior through
several sloughs. The soil is of peaty nature
Now they complain against this defendant
that they cannot reclaim these lands; thai
they cannot make them the Arcadia that Mr.
Cadwalader's Inauguration described wher
he pictured 40, 900 happy farmers on that sin
gle island containing IA, GOO acres. They
complain that Cache slough of late years, anc
in consequence Of debris, as they say, in the
rivers, has swept directly across Steam
boat slough and across the mai1
river and over these islands, into the
San Joaquin river. They say that has re-
suited from the debris filling of the river,
They have now about 8 feet of tide at that
point in the river where they had Al feet il
1869, which shows US the difference in the
hight of the bed of the river. And yet these
same witnesses who come here to enlighter
us as to the causes Of those cross waters from
Cache slough, all tell u, on cross-examination
that Cache slough, which is the great outlet
of the tule basin, acted the same way in the
foods of former years, before the era of de-
bris deposits. In 1852 and 1862 the waters
from that slough swept straight across the
river and the islands, and passed off into the
San Joaquin. They backed the waters of
the Sacramento river up for miles, just as
they do now in high floods such as we had in
1868, 1873 and 1881.
Fourth-The injuries in Yolo county from
the English break, to some distance below
Washington, are almost altogether fmputable
to the Strengthening of the American river
and no part of them are traced to the defend.
ant for their cause, even by the most remote
connection.
Fifth-It is net satisfactorily shown that
the raising of the subterranean water level in
the city is caused by the raising of the river
bed. If this subterranean water is due to
percolation from the river, it is obvious that
percolation cannot be as free and easy as it
was in early days, before the banks were
thickly coated with clayey sediment, as they
are now. There are a number of other causes
| aIa tba coil far NOVA y,o-