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

angles, at a distance of about three. quarters
of mile above its old mouth. The grade of
the old route was added to the shorter course,
and the food waters were thus turned direct
ly against the bank of the Sacramento in
Yolo county, upon straight course and with
an impetuous current. What was the re-
suit? Mr. Babcock, Mr.. Greenlaw, Mr..
Hoaglsnd and Others have told US of the re.
markable change in the character of the
American river, from once having been a
peaceful, gently flowing stream, and now
being violent and destructive. We remember
their description of it before it was rudely
torn from its former bed, and how of late
years the current has become very rapid, and
how the waters come down in waves and tor
rents. And why? Because its new channel
is shorter and sleeper, by one.half, than the
old one. They have told us how the
American river in 1868 tore its way
across the Sacramento river into Yolo
county, destroying levees, natural river
banks, orchards, houses and lands. How 1T
formed q new river in the great tule basin in
Yolo county, the course and currento OF which
could be traced for miles. They told US, too,
that they then knew what caused all this de-
struction, and how for years they sought
PREPARATION from the authors OF it. 1t now
serves the purposes of the managers OF this law
suit to seek to make one.sided use OF these
well known events in order to charge upon
the Gold Run Mining Company and its men
itors and little giants share of the response
bility for al the injuries suffered by 1ndIvid-
uals in the last fourteen years, as direct
consequence of these changes in the channel
of the American river.
This reformation in the channel and mouth
of the American accomplished the object
designed by its authors, which was the abso-
lutely necessary and important purpose of
protecting this city aad its artificial dsfenses
on the north from the natural action of the
waters of the American river. That was
fully ACCOMPLISHED and the experiment fully
tested in 1868. They set about it soon after
the great floods of 1852 when its necessity
became apparent The Act authorizing it,
think, was passed in 1868. MIR. Hoag, who
observed the proceeding with some anxiety.
it may be supposed says -" l predicted it
would food us in Yolo and it did," Mr.
Hoagland, who had the most reason to feel
concerned about it, says the water commenced
running through the new mouth some time
before 1865, but in that year, when there was
big flood in the American, the water, in.
stead of going where for some ages at least it
had been in the habit of going, it plunged
straight against the Yolo county banks. The
witnesses produced by plaintiff to describe
the effects of foods in Yolo county after this
important change could not be induced to
admit that the Sacramento had any agency
in the matter at all. They said the American
on these occasions INSTRUCTED the flow of the
Sacramento, damned it up, reversed its cur
rent, and caused it to flow back. up
stream for miles. Mr. Clarke. who
owns a large body OF swamp land
on the eastern side of the Sacramento above
the new mouth of the American, extending
nearly to the mouth of the Feather, tells us
the same thing. He says the waters of the
Sacramento and American would be found
flowing for miles up stream and over his
lands. depositing 'slickens" and "slum-
gulion on his swamps, where, in the sum-
mer, his large herds fed on the tule water
grasses. 1t was the opinion of Mr.. Clarke,
whose ideas Of true agriculture were those
of a California cattleherdsr, that this de-
post injured his swamps. Mr.. Hoag, the
great expounder of swamp land agriculture,
also thought that "slickens " was Z" death
and destruction to all true agriculture. !"
'Stone fruits" which, it appears, do not
flourish on those swamp lands, have suffered,
he says, in consequence of the beds of the
rivers being filed with mining debris de-
posits. Before the advent of the American
river as one of the contributors to the
waters in the Western tule basin, the
tule waters usually subsidized early
euUuSE " pSEHulI tile CulLlNdllOu VI CEcpS
upon the narrow rim of cultivatable land on
the river margin. Before that Putah creek
and Cache creek from the west and the Sac
ramento from the north were the only feed
ers of that vast waste of waters. 1t is agreed
with great uuanimity by these witnesses, of
whom It may be said that they are purely To-
cal in the range of their ideas and descriE-
tions, are not large observers nor accurate
reasoners, that of late years the tule waters
dc not, as usual thing, subside as early as
formerly. This, if their opinions were asked,
they would unhesitatingly inpute to mining
operations as the sole and only cause. vi
cious systems OF reclamation, levees strong in
some places and weak in others, high on one
side of the river and low on the other, ard
meme at all in places where most needed,
would not appear to them as factors in the
matter at all. Ii their attention was called
to the fact proven in this case, and notorious
as current public knowledge, that for one
hundred miles on the Sacramento above
the mouth OF the Feather, where
the alleged evils of mining deposits
are wholly unknown. but where the same
vicious system Of reclamation to large ex-
tent prevails, the rim land cultivators suffer
more of late years than formerly from the
effects of high water both in the river and in
the tule basins, such facts would have nc
logical effect upon miads in which opinions
are native born, and not the result of intelli'
genoa and reason. This city has enjoyed i'm
munity from the dangers of the American
river ever since these measures of protection
were completed. The immunity was pur.
chased at a large sacrifice of the property Of
others, and was sought to be justified upon
the ground that the safety of large commu-
nifty required it-upon the ground Of neces
sity. Now all these injuries are paraded and
exaggerated here, and marshaled in the &C
count against hydraulic mining. This wa:
one of the means adopted by which
this city was reclaimed from its origi
nal condition, for it was merely {
swamp 1t was literally nothing more.
1t was owing to a certain combination
of circumstances that it happened to be 10
Gated here instead of upon the high GROUND
in its immediate vicinity. 1t is not worth
while to allude to these circumstances now
It would be improbable to do so, and could
have but a remote bearing on this case bat
we may consider-aud especially In view oil
the broad way in which the case is presented
by the plaintif-we must necessarily consider
the condition of this city, its drainage, the
navigation Of the river and the health Of the
city, as they existed in the halcyon days OF
1880. We have been invited to a consid.
Grafton of them. They are constantly pressed
upon cur attention. What does Mr.. Knox
Say A0itL W MN Ao DSAlk OuC VI Vac
most intelligent and one of the most
candid witnesses, one who was Endorsed az a
witness in the legal sense, by both parties,
having been put on the stand by each OF
them. His duties as public officer and his
occupation in his private capacity as a con-
tractor in building streets and other i'm
provements, from very early day, has
made him qualified to speak intelligently on
that subject. He says that the site of this
city was cut up with sloUghs, and he
described some Of them. He says they
ran in almost every direction. form
ing natural drains from the American
river and drains for the natural water
which fell during the storms all tending
towards the lower part of the city-wnat we
call the lower part of the city, which is but
a short distance from where we are
standing-at o street, and P street,
and Q street and + street, and Sc
on down to Y street. He tells US that he
remembers well when the tules-those uner.
ring witnesses of low and swampy land, be.
cause they are found nowhere else-mani-
tested their growth far up as Q street, aid
in the low places between Third street on the
west and Seventh and Eighth streets on the
east. He tells US that this city never had
any drainage, and that, moreover, it has not
any now, speaking of it in the sense Of good
and efficient drainage. The city originally,
he said. had no drainage, and no attempt to
have any was made until after 1862. Its
IL. i