Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-02
REMARKS UPON PREVIOUS LETTER
CoEcERpISG JUDGE skWYER'S DE-
CIsIoN.

ClSlON.
EDS. RECoBD-UNIoN: In your issue of
the 26th instant appears communication
from Felix Gillet, of Nevada City, upon
the late decision Of Judge Sawyer. The
article is prettily written, but l desire to
take some points of honest issue with the
writer, and will point out few errors he
has been led into by an undue regard for
the enterprise and capital engaged in hy
draulic mining.
The first mistake made is in assigning
Hydraulic mining meaning by the
term the use Of water as an agent for tear
ing down and moving the earth everything
the auriferous beds of extinct water chan.
nvls-an age of thirty.four years. 1t is
safe to say that the improved method of
hydraulic mining, and which has done
practically all of the damage the valleys
have suffered, is not the one-h half of thirty
four years old. In fact, the Monitor and
Little Giant are inventions of almost the
present decade. Prior to the winter of
1862 60 the rivers were unpolluted by by.
since that time that we must speak of hy-
draul C mining in its destructiveness, In
discussing This question writers are too
prone to eXsggerate the Importance of n.y.
drauic mining. The annual yield of gold
for the STATE is between Sl5 600, 600 and
$50, 600, GEO. of which hydraulic mining
produces hardly the tenth part. We
must not mix up the general term mining
with a single branch of mining industry,
As for the bitches constructed at SO
much cost, it is lamenvable fact tlat
they cannot be used at once but the time
will soon come when they will become
paying property IN the hands of intelli.
gent management. As for cheap labor, 1t
/ is 8 wel-known fact that very little skilled
labor is employed in the working of by.
draulic mines. Chinese have been largely
employed, and would have been more so
were it not that the owners were afraid Of
public sentiment. In fact, large part of
their defense in this legal conflict has been
in working on the sympathies Of people,
communities, Legislatures, and even Courts.
The " Ridge spoken Of by Mr. Gillet
had far better be q second Meadow Lake"
tlan an agent spreading destruction and
waste in the valleys and rivers b=low. As
Mr. Glllet has aptly said, gold required
no warehouse to store it" He might have
added that it conferred no blessings by
employing hundreds of busy hands while
in transit, and distributes no wealth to tie
laborirg man, On the other hand agri.
cultural produce acquires additional value
while IN transit, and at every shipping
center leaves substantial evidence of its
utility and intrinsic value.
Z No one claims that Judge Sawyer's de-
( cree has put quietus to illegal processes
of mining, or settled the debris question
but we hope it is the beginning of the end.
/ It Is no remedy-simPly definition Of our
rights The future viii no doubt bring
trouble from the vast deposits already in
the river channels, but it is surely some
benefit to have the dispositions Of debris
restrained.
Your correspondent also forewarns us of
our certain destruction by reason of the
natural wash of the rivers. We are not
upbraidiug the laws Of nature, and we are
satisfied to abide by the results of her do
iags. More than this, we would invite an
annual deposition of alluvial soil wash on
our agricultural lands. l. would be so
much manure, not inert, poisonous stuff
like saud and clay. Periodical overhows
carving washings from land can only be
beneficial and have only been 90. II our
own rivers prove exceptional it will be a
phenomenon worthy Of note.
Speaking of the erosion of rains and
rivers, Professor lie Conte says in his text
book on geology 1.-The Ganges erodes its
basin one foot in l, 75l years, the Missis-
sippi one foot in T. $40 years" He says
the cause of the great difference in favor Of
the Gapgee is that this river is situated in
a country subject to very great annual fall
of water, the whole OF which falls during
rainy season OF six months. He further
savs we believe the Mississippi is much
nearer an average river than the Gauges,
Here, then, is river considered by SCI
entists as q very rapidly eroding one,
which removes one foot of its basin in
!, 75I years 1t is quite probable that our
California rivers DO not erode even as fast
as the Ganges. But did they erode ten
times as fast, that would represent only
one foot removed over the surface OF its
basis in 10 years. Stop hydraulic mining
and we viii take even this risk without H.
surauce.
The hillsides of Italy and France are
covered with the grape aud the olive, and
we hear no complaints CT the natural wash
damaging the valley lands. II the soil gets
20 walking off from the mountain peo-
pies land and making for the valley, the
irst-uamed people viii be the ones to
" whistle The richest lands in the world
have been made by dispositions of sedi-
mentary washings; but soil is not, nor
never wilt be, made by deposition OF by
draulic material. The deltas of all large
rivers are made up of these alluvial wash
ings, and it is useless for the valley people
TO think of securing much of this wash,
for 1t will not stop II it gets to the mouths
Of the rivers
Oace let the rive, channels be freed from
their present incubus of hydraulic debris,
and natural agencies will be as provident
of man needs IN the future as they ever
have been in tho past. We will have
periodical floods and spring freshess, but
the recession Of the water will show no
deposition of inert and sometimes poison
GUS earthly matter, of no use as soil, and
impossible to remove from the original
soil.
have not said a word Of the injuries
caused by hydraulic mining, hut, in con-
clusion, will say this Of it When condol-
ing with the unfortunate hydraulic miner,
to simply think of the devastation wrought
in the valleys, wealth destroyed and lives
lost, will help to bring the justice OF this
decree more plainly before the mind.
NJ. II. DUEST.
Whestlaud, January IS, 1884.