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

! when 1t Is all taken together IN regard TO
these craftsmanship at Pickerlng's
Bar, where they do commence. so far as we
know anything about them, and found all
| the way down to Sscramento-itis that these
deposits and bars have been built up gradu-
ally, year by year, ever since they first COM
menced 1t may be admitted that flood
| like 1862 moved great deal of it, but do
not believe that the food of 1862 or any
other f ood ever secured the main American
or the Sacramento river of their contents.
| That bars and deposits of comparatively
ligh. material far UP, in the mountain
streams have been moved by active foods in
the mountains and deposited further
down, is true. Some instances of such
action of heavy floods are related in
| testimony. Mr.. Hoag and Mr.. Hoagland
speak in general way of the securing
| out of the river, and say there is change in
these sand. bars in the Sacramento upon
which the foods act in the winter; that bars
are formed further down the river and in
crease in hight in some places and diminish
in others. There is no doubt that, to a GER
tain extent, there is change in the bars, as
has has been dsscribed-in the soft bars
especially-during the winter floods.
| will read little from the testimony of
witnesses, who are better informed upon this
subjsct than Mr.. Hoag or Mr.. Hoagland.
| Mr.. Sheldon, who gave an intelligent de-
scription of the action of the floods upon
these deposits in the upper parts of the
| American river, was sensible, IS some other
witnesses were on the stand, of how difficult
it was to convey to the Court and the at
torneys correct picture of what he
had seen and which was familiar
to his mind. But few persons
are competent to give good descriptions of
| such things but if any witnesses have given
us intelligent descriptions of the action of the
| floods upon these deposits, and a description
of the way in which they originated and have
been built up, it was given by Mr.. Sheldon,
by Mr.. Anderson, by Mr.. Knight, by Mr..
one or two others. Mr.. Sheldon said in his
direct examination Noticed considerable
| filing in the river at Alabama Bar in 1857"
| That is a point in the American river below
the junction of the South Fork and the North
| Fork Noticed after 1862 considerable more
| filling, and a gradual filling up all the way
! through since 1862. The flood of 1862 brought
| down trees, stumps and everything else." 1
| am reading from page 2849 of volume 8.
LAT that time it brought houses. lumber,
| mining machinery, and trees 200 feet long.
The river was filled with debris of all kinds
washed from the mountain canyons and from
the sides Of the mountains" He did not say
that he saw cobbles coming down the river.
but he saw everything that would float COM
| ing down. He said, 1.-THE next great food
was in 1867 s, and that brought down great
deal cf the same stuff that year" He said,
1.-THE rive, in 1862 was filled with drift.
wood and trees for miles" Plaintiffs sought
to prove their securing theory by this wit
ness He was competent above all others to
speak upon the subject.
| The direct examination of all the wit
nesses for plaintiff On this point was very
leading and argumentative. Some of them
were coaxed into partial Endorsement of the
theory In answer to one of these questions
Mr. Sheldon said that the cobbles might
work down and the sand might get around
them and make it smooth. He carried on
hydraulic mine himself, in 1872, at place
above Rattlesnake Bar to quite a large ex-
tent for some months, and said he thought
the stuff ne dropped into the river in 1872 is
there yet; and in making that statement he
spoke from his observation as resident on
tbs bank OF the river for long period of
time. He is a man thoroughly acquainted
with mining and with the river and is pc
culiarities. Speaking of the river and the
color of the water, he said that there is
mine at present operated just above Folsom
that colors the water of the river very red.
He was asked if above the bridge at Folsom
there is big pile of tailings that goes away
every year when the water raises, or is
! leveled down. Mr.. Cadwalader put the
question, if it is question, in this
form: ''Question-It sweeps it away?
| Answer-It levels it down. L do not
know now far it gees down stream, but am
positive it levels it down. After the freshet
goes down you can see that the pile of tail
ings is lower than it was before. 1t stands
up loose to the point where it comes out of
the boxes snd s.uices." That is literally re-
ported. He said that these piles of tailings
run out into the river and form a sort of a
conical-shaped terminus, and that the floods
act on those points and level them down. He
could not be coaxed to say that they were
swept away, further than to say that they
were leveled down. He said you can see the
tail piles there after the food goes down.
| These were described by other witnesses. The
| effort to prove this securing out has been made
a prominent feature of the plaintiff case
| They have not been satisfied to take the evil
| dencs as it is on that subject; not even that
of their own witnesses.
An attempt has been made to prove that the
material that comes cut of this mine does not
| remain in tn river between PckeriBg's Bar
and Rice's bridge, as we aver it does. They
| sought TO show that the power of the water
WAS such that it must necessarily sweep all
the tsiings from the mines down the river;
and their witnesses failing them in that, they
then resorted to theories, and to what is said
in books respacti1g the power Of water under
given vslocities. Aud they referred with some
unction to the fact that some witnesses said
they had known stones and coarse material
to be carried down some two or three hun
dred yards but the effort has been a failure
every time it was attempted with witness who
understood the matter, whether the witness
was called by plaintiff or by defendant. Mr..
L1wton, a witness for plaintiff, who is
merchant residing on the north side of the
American river, opposite Folsom, and who
has been there ever since 1856, testified upon
thissubject. On his direct taey OBJ
tanned from him this description, and [ quote
it literally: Question-Do you know what
became Of the tailings from Mississippi Bar?
Answer-No. They were dumped and left
there, aud tha waters swept over them and
took part of them away" Up. 2733
He was asked further on the subject, and
he said "When the river goes down the
taiings were there, but not so high. 1t is
leveled off. and the miners again fill them
H." 10. 1862 He is particularly well
informed in regard to Mississippi Bar,
and he said that those failing were in
cobbles wete not carried into the river, but
were thrown out of the sluicss, ard that the
small material all went through the sluices.
He said that when the river goes down the
taiings were still there, but that the piles
were not so high, and that the miners again
filled them in that is, they go to work and
tail at the same places, and the high waters
level the piles down again. On cross-examin-
alton he said (p. 2775) that "the high water
levels the tail piles off more or less, according
to the strength of the water, and that after
ward the miners start in again and run the
material right on top of the old tail piles"
e. A. Smith, surveyor and engineer
from Ell Dorado county, who had lived
there for about eight years, and whose occu.
patton had brought him in connection with
mining, described the deposits in the South
Fork in the vicinity of Coloma, and said that
the water moved the light sand, but that it
did not appear to have any effect at all on
the deposits. He said that the piles of tail
iDgs that had been dumped into Weber creek
years ago reached out into the creek, and the
points of them had been torn off, but that
Weber creek raised several feet on the sides
of them and he could not discover that they
had moved particle Up. $780,
Mr. Gwynn, one of plaintiffs witnesses, was
fluent witness, if he was not fast one
He had some familiarity with the North
Fork, in the neighborhood of Rattlesnake
Bar, Kentucky Bar, Whisky Bar and the
bars in that vicinity and he emphasized TIE
fact as very remarkable one, that he had
seen cobbles at Kentucky Bar which had
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