Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-07
DEB5IS.
FIFTY-FIFFH DAY OF TIE sLIcKENs
CASE IN COURT

1
| Continuation Of the argument Before
I Judge Temple, By Richard Bayne
and A. P Catlin.
Yesterday at a. VI. the argument in the
debris case wac resumed before Judge Tenn
pie. w. G. Belcher, for the defendant, con.
tinued his remarks. Among the new points
he made was that not one-fourth Of hydraulic
mining has SIS yet been done ; the surface has
been washed off that which has done the
damage has come down; the matter to be
washed now is the deeper part of the mines,
cements in the river beds near the mires, and
cannot be removed except as in the first in
stance. The defendant is not the only miu-
ing company. There are 434, exclusive of the
quartz and placer Mines The work being
done throughout Ell Dorado county in the
mines is exactly the kind of mining that will
do the damage complained of. if it is to te
done. If the question of navigation is to be
considered-and it is as good to day in the
Feather as in 1S49. as Captain Foster said it
was-then there may be considered the fact
that the miners store large quantities of
| water in the mountains in the winter, and
which they give to the streams in the sum
mer. This saving of the storm waters is one
of the great engineering questions of the day
1t is beneficial matter to be considered in
Offset by the Court
| RICHARD BAYNE
| Next addressed the Court in behalf of the
people. By the testimony it is established
| the streams were clear and remained so up
to the time Of mining. As late as 1851,
when the overhows came, there was scarcely
any deposit left and no damage to the lands,
and even in 1861 the deposit was of dark
| loan soil, of benefit to the lands below.
| That since hydraulic mining began there has
been marked change, and especially in the
last FIVE or sig years It has been q deposit
Of damage to agriculture and to navigation.
| The deposits have not only increased in
\ quantity but have been coarser in quality.
| Hoag, Greenlaw, Cone, Crocker, Clarke
| Routier, Lawtop, Foster were all emphatic
| on these points, and more than that that the
material referred to was death to agriculture
Rooney testified to frequently seeing round
! cobbles rolling down the river. So, too, did
| Gwynn. Sheldon, an unwilling witress for
| the pee pie, testified that he had seen coarse
gravel, cobbles and all kinds of heavy ma
terial moving down past Folsom. It is said
| if the rivers are left to themselves they will
REcTIFY THEMSELVES,
And that is the proof in tine case. 1t is said
J Wilkes found bars in the rivers in 1912, and
one at the mouth of the American. Admit
| it. Were they there in IS49? No; il is in
| p;oof that there were no sandbars there in
| l849. So the action of nature had cleared
the river of any such bars. 1t is in proof
| thai now bars had formed, and more, that
the deep reaches Of the river have filled
with one voice. The drainage of the low
lands has been prevented by the filling of the
river beds. Not only has drainage been
checked in Sacramento, but around the coua
| try places too that the orchards are no
longer drained that the cold water stands in
the soil by reason of the raising of the water
| level, and the production of all kinds CT
growth retarded and destroyed. But nayiga-
tion has been impeded, in some sections well
nigh destroyed Bars have formed, entirely
unknown until the era OF hydraulic mining.
Referred TO ths testimony of Ferris. Foster
and pilots and boatmen Defendant says
| the channels in Suisun and San Pablo bays
have not been destroyed, but only narrowed.
Even that is 4 damage. and leads to the cor
clusion that it viii go on till the channels are
closed and Swallowed and rendered useless for
navigation. 1t is in proof that this filing is
one-third due to mining il so it proves the
p aint ifs case. Mr.. Green's testimony is
decisive as to the original bed Of the river
being found at Colusa, with no sign OF deposit
| upon it. 1t has been proven that the sand
comes down the American river, rolling il
waves. as it were. and pouring into the Sac
| ramento river, and that bars form st It's
mouth and along the Sacramento in front of
| Sacramento city, and that boats can no
4 10 -
of the suction on the bottom of the boat.
All this since hydraulic mining, began
| Whence came all this matter if not from the
mines, for it has been shown that
THE MATERIAL Is NOT OF THE KIND
That comes from surface and natural wash
Professor Davidson could not say whether it
was the Mississippi or the Missouri that is
so loaded from abo-e with sedimentary ma
terial. Part Ill of Engineer Halls report
for 1880. p. %, says there can be no question
but that mining is furnishing the great mass
of the material doing the damage now felt in
the valley. He places the proportions of the
natural wash of all the upper Sacramento
river at 100000 yards, mining wash moth
ing. Feather, natural wash, SEQ, 900; min
ing wash, 1900, 900; American. natural waah,
| 1000 COO; mining wash, 3,500,000. OF Al.
| 600 900 cubic yards put into the Feather in
| one year, 8 700, 900 passed out in Suspension
and of 100000 in the American in oue
year, 3 800 600 passed Gu: Ia suspension. He
also describes the rolling sand on the bottoms
of the rivers. [Ccunsel read in ectenso from
| the report. Defendants mine began in 1875
to work its deep gravel. Since that very
year the increase Ia the coarseness of the ma
terisl has been Eoticed. The material taken
| by M. Hall from the American and settled,
| he shows is of like character to that found in
the defendants mine. The very sands brought
| down the American river were brought into
| Court and identified, and also the samples of
material taken from the mine of the defend
ant. That material has to be pulverized to o
powder, almost. in order to take out the gold.
| Defendants Superintendent did not producs
sample Of the material now being worked
| In defendants mine, and could give no excuse
| for not doing it; but Mr.. Ruutley did
produce
In Court, and it was shown to be of like
character with that in the American river
| Mr.. Smith, defendants engineer, describes
the miuing area as of fan shape, spreading
out from above Folsom, where its escape
| from its waters is through q narrow way
| He said floods are generally caused by heavy
| falls of snow early in tie season, which do
not have time to pack before warm rains
| come and then the lower rivers fill up below,
for the snow becomes saturated with water,
and it all comes down together. From this
| sudden volume of water, then, coming from
all this fan shaped area, as MIR. Smith de-
| scribes it, and crowded through the narrow
| way at Folsom, the terrible force of the cur
| rent may be imagined and its power to sweep
the mining material down. MIR. Smith him
self swears that the early mining wash, the sur
| face wash from mines, has been washed down
the river. If, therefore, defendant, by its
washing, has put in molten the material al
ready in the river. it is as responsible for this
displacement as for its own deposit in the
rivers. Suppose it to be true these rivers are
in danger from natural wash, is that any rea
son defendant should add to the danger and
increase its imminency? The defendant does
not place alluvial deposit on the lands, but
unproductive sands; they do not give
US additional water. they say, but
they do send the waters down in
vast and sudden and destructive foods
Counsel at length reviewed the testimony as