Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-02
sections has been injured. These are the
charges in the bill. We are told by counsel

charges in the bill We are told by counsel
of certain
IMPosTuREs
In this case. But though he exempted de-
PENDANTS counsel from part therein, we say
to counsel, how is it with you? Plaintiff has
held throughout that the whole State almost
has been injured. that the case is State
affair. Estimates of the land affected placed
it at onc-twentieth Of one per cent. of all the
State. Such is the estimate of the Surveyor
General OF the lands affected by mining
debris. Probably it is then one per cent. of
the lands of the Sacramento valley. Take
Mr.. Halls report and we find that during
thirty-one years the entire effect of the min.
ing has been, not a loss, but mere deprecia-
ton Of lands, and that the money deprecia-
ton is 81. 500, 900 and odd. He had thought
from all the exaggeration on the part of the
plaintiff to have seen the men OF wealth, the
men of labor,
THE MEN OF PROPERTY
Thronging the Court room and watching the
proceedings with bated breath. There has
been a degree Of apathy on the part of the
people Of Sacramento IS to this case that puts
the falsehood upon the exaggeratiops in this
case. Here are few people tonight. but
where are the men whose homes are threat.
ened, and whom we are told must join in the
does not cease. If, as counsel says, these
mines are struggling on the last legs of bank
ruptcy, if they are failing, and tottaring, why
not let them alone and let this weakened and
decaying industry die But if the mines are
worthless, if that is admitted, this Court,
then on the Supreme Bench, replied in an
earlier case that it is no defense of PROPOSE.
tioo, and no argument for it, that the prop
erty in litigation is worthless. Counsel read
the figures of earnings sf the mines to show
that the statement Of worthlessness was not
well founded. He should on his part gener-
alize, and not go into the facts in detail bis
colleagues would do that. He would assume
certain things, although counsel denied that
they had been proven. The Court would take
judicial notice of the early history of the
country, of the topography and meteoroiogy
OF che country, etc., but the Courts memory
might be revived by references. California,
in its genera, ply steal features, on its acqui-
sition presented some of the graudest and
strangest spectacles. We found in the
Sierras grand system of ancient river beds
full of auriferous gravel, the washipgs OF an
earlier history. We found them upheaved
to the mountain tops and overlaid with lava.
Then we find new rivers formed. We find
grand system of bays, and all agree that at
an earlier period there was still grander
syatem of inland seas. We find tremendous
gorges, showing an immense loss of material,
which we find deposited in the valley as
great plains, and also large swamps where
nature is still at work at reclamation. San
Francisco Bay has no large streams surround
ing it, only rivulsts, yet they have formed,
aud are forming, fringe of shadows and
marsh lands. These are the work of
NO LARGE RIVERS.
Coming up to San Pablo Bay we find the
streams larger aud the tidal area more con-
tracted, for the streama 'hayep performed their
part more fully, Came on to Susan Bay and
the tidal area is gtilf mora contracted, because
the great work is still nafe--nearly complete,
for here are the large iiFe:s . Edo9ttedly
tending clear, to ,,thes, Shasta Flutes, in the
past But still theres afe tutalsh laeds and
nature is still at work Adfag heg, best to re-
claim them from theSsea.- It totk q vast
amount of material, and it came from the
great Canyons, and the American river was
one OF the greatest carriers of the material.
[Couns3l referred in support Of his statement
to the report Of Colonel Mendell to the
Washington authorities aud the War Depart
ment and Congress, pages and Such Is
the natural operation Of the great central
streams in California, independent of the ac-
tioa of man. Such has been the work also
in various parts of the globe of many great
rivers. Herodotus, 800 years before Christ,
describes parts of Egypt made by its rivers.
Il was strange that counsel should at
tack 50 eminent and learned and expert.
enced man as Professor Davidson, because
of his relation of his own observation and ex-
perience with certain great rivers OF the far
East The attack showed only the errors in
the geographical knowledge of the counsel.
Counsel further defended the testimony of
nox,.Isno | faupoa1 fn- y,1aipt,H
wanted Professor Davidson to compare the
raging American with the gentle Hudson and
the gentle Ohio, and not with the Pc /; but
when there came the question of tie car
rying power of the river, then couu-
sci denominates the American torrential.
Marsh's Man and Nature" is Mr.. Cadwal-
ader's favorite author. The same writer. in
his later work. Nature. as Modified by
the Works of Man"-says [reading]: We
kuow little OF how much OF the plains of
Lombardy were formed by the Pc. Ravenna
has filed up the lagoon, and Ravenns is now
inland. Idria, once on the sea shore, is now
fourteen miles inland. the rivers having so
advanced the see coast. The floods OF the
Pc occur once, and sometimes twice, year.
1t annually carries to the sea almost %, 000,-
600 cubic yards of solid matter. That ex-
tinds the shore Of the sea at the rate of 200
feet year. Counsel read also to show that
$50, 000,G coo cubic yards of matter aye sub
trected annually from the Alps and Appe-
mines and carried down to the lakes and the
sea by the rivers and their tributaries. He
said the best authorities place the advance Of
THE DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI
During two centuries last past at from SO to
ITO yards per year. Blr Wilson read trans
latious from leading scientific French work,
ID -, Of
China, Hindostan, etc and their RENAL hable
power t. bull UP labd az their mouths. He
read al.,a avain from Colonel MeDdeiPs re-
port tpace 81 Ia TO tie drainage basins of cen.
trail Cal;foc.ia, dec ibing the souIcss # the
rive~s aud streams ia the mountaics and hills,
the p ri d, in which the rain falls. ii two
seasons OF high water in tbs rivers. TIE low
water dr. .ilage Of the Sacramento Is , 600 to
6 Coo feet per second, but il fl nod sea,oa is
100.0 G0 feet Tie drainage of 81 0C0 square
miles reaches the bay through the streams.
(At page LII. Nature and man seem TO be of
necessity at work lessening the tidal area, but
ultimate disaster would seem to be in the re.
mote future. Counsel also read from Engineer
Smiths report on the drainage OF the valley,
to the effect that the streams empty
ipg into tule basin bring down large
Quantities of material, and build out
tongues of land and leave the beds, till the
stream changes It's course and begins to Dul!d
10 lower place. The report described the
building capacity in this respect Of Putah
creek especially and the great change it made
ia the positions Of its mouth. He read also
from the report of State Engineer Hall, that
the Sacramento is too small generally for the
waters presented 10 it, and describing how its
condition was brought about and its discharge
capacity reduced. On the subject OF escape
wejrs the Engineer said no possible enlarge
ment of the channel of the river, no possibl
entertainments can make the river carry the
waters Of such floods as 1868. 1873, etc., and
SO he favored the construction of escape weirs,
etc.. and thus prevent the total destruction
of property, and that without escape weirs
the leyets must
INEVITABLY BE OVERLOOKED.
Counsel here opened the map Of 1854 of the
city of Sacramento. It shows the courses of
the American prior to the conquest of the
country. Ages ago the American undoubt-
eddy ran back of and south of the city. But
it has brought down debris, built out tongues
of land, and changed its course to its present,
and the old laeoons marked on the map are
evidences of that work. So, too, below its
new mouth this map shows evidences of an
old river, now filed up, and new discharge
place located. The map shows, too, that the
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