Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-26

county to the west of us as our measure OF
security. We commend the considerations
also to those other citizens who propose
to set up the precedent of taking out GER
tain amount of the rivers volume, but
not sufficient, as they say, ito impair the
navigabiIity of the stream" 1t must be
obvious that no amount can, by flow
through an unnatural opening, be taken
without some impairment. and to just that
extent the taking is wrong and dangerous.
And such wrong and such danger must In
crease with the continuance of the un-
natural discharge and thus small impair.
ment grow to be great injury. A CORE
spondent suggests to us that single canal
would reduce the volume so infnitesimslly
that no injury could occur; but it has
been shown that the infinitesimal discharge
is the fruitful parent of final great OBJ.
structions, and is therefore not permissible,
to say nothing of committing to others the
Judgment as to what is the amount that
may be taken without injury to say moth.
ing, either, of the fact that the higher up
on a stream unnatural emmission occurs
the more dangerous it is, for obvious rea.
sons.
Levees, therefore, are to deepen chan
nels, and even when erected solely to pro-
tect lands, the effect uniformly has been to
benefit the stream. The Red river from
Shreveport to its mouth is crooked
stream flowing through alluvial soil. But
it has been leveed for 200 miles above
Alexandria, and as q result the floods that
once used to overspread the valley have
ceased, for the channel has been deepened
and the Ievees in food tine are scarcely
reached at all. For sixty years sixty. five
miles of the Lafourche bayou has been
leveed, and between the levess the depth
has been maintained, but below them sedi.
ment deposits, and the bed is raised
until now the levees built later have
been raised twelve feet above the
original hight, while those above
have remained as they were
half century ago. The CHI annels of the Pc
the Rhine, the Seine and the Thames have
been deepened by levees. On the last
named river the channel depth has been
increased six fest
Ordinary floods are part of the rivers
normal life; extraordinary foods are not.
In channel formation then, the ordinary
food is the determining force, that which
shapes its bed. If now we can control and
utilize the whole force of the ordinary
flood, we get the benefit of all the normal
energy of the river. How is it in the Sacra-
mento river, however? So soon as the
flood waters reach the stage where they
should begin the work Of restoration and
preservation, they escape through levee
breaks, and the force that would serve US a
good purpose is in whole or in part lost.
These truths are SO apparent, and SO un-
answerable, that when we hear citizens
speak of the safety of river towns and
islands being assured by the escape weirs
of the river known as breaks, we cannot
but reflect that they are only trusting to
that which will in the end require of them
to build still higher levees, and eventually
to abandon the river for all commercial
purposes.
The outcome of the whole argument is
this If we can induce the Federal Gov
eminent to contine the Sacramento river,
and restore its energy, we absolutely lessen
the cost and necessity of levee buildi lg,
But by permitting unnatural escapes, and
by leveeing to force the river through them,
we actually raise the bed OF the stream and
further prolong the building era. Our
immediate duty, therefore, is to second the
memorial of the San Francisco Board of
Trade, urging speedy work by the General
Government upon the Sacramento river.