Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-08-20

had choked the river and raised its bed
several feet.
Captain Payson ought 10 know, if lie
does not, that there is no instrumental or
chemical test delicate or accurate enough
to discover agricultural deposition in the
river bed sufficient to cut any sort Of !,
figure in the case whatever. Il is al,5so- !
lutely minute and immaterial.
Captain Payson ought to Know, if he
does not, that while far back in pioneer
history, when early mining disturbed the
soil, there was possibly a light, rich loan
worked of, but that the countless millions
of cubic yards of Inorganic matter washed
from the deepcs- bowels Of the hills by
hydraulic processes, and depolted on the
tributaries and rivers, contributed the mat
ter that clroked the streams. That the
genuine skckens foated upon the land is
death to it, and as cruel visitation as
man can send upon the bosom of earth.
When Captain payson talks OF agricult-
ural deposits he bellies the physical fact
paten; to every person wko uses the river
water or examines the obstacles in the
stream. Captain Payson ought to knowthet
as Ear back as eight gears age pulverized
granite was dug frgr the bed of Cache
slough, carried there by floods from the
mines, and that il was so utterly useless
that not even lc%ees could be built Of it,
while to put it yFpon the soil was equiva-
lent to Abandoning thesol for agricultural
purposes.
Captain Fayson declares that under no
circumstances viii anything be done to the
American riT7er. That is to say, if the
Government finds vast beds of coarse and
fine gravel coming down that river and
about to he precipitated into the Sacra-
mento, it (the Government would and
should de nothing to prevent it. Yet it is
true that within nine miles of the city vast
beds of fine gravel are found in the Ameri-
can river that came down to that point
within the past year.
Captain Payson does not believe the
Sacramento will ever become wholly unnavi-
gable By which, we infer, he means that
in high water, for few weeks in the year.
some sorts of boats will be able to make
their way up stream for a limited distance
Captain Payson appears to be wholly
obli@ious to the physical fact that in the
lower reaches of the tributaries of the Sac
ramento are mining deposits moving on to
the main stream, and that must come into
1t apd destroy it, and sweep on to the bays
below and destroy them, unless something
is done to check the descent, and these
facts are attested by everyday observation
and the testimony of eminent engineers.
1t is somewhat remarkable that in all of
Captain Payson's statements to the Gail
there is only the slightest reference to min
ing deposits or to the abnormal changes in
the river due to mining deposits, or to the
vast accumulations below the mines.
1t might profit Captain Payson to exam
inc the several reports of his superior Off
Ger, Colorel Mendell, on these topics,
which will enable him to ascertain, at least
approximately, chow much of the shoal-
ing of the river is due to agriculture and
how much to hydraulic mining" a topic
on which he so frankly confesses to such
singular ignorance.
The truth is, the bed of the river can be
recti6ed without such excavation as has
been supposed, and at cost greatly below
popular estimation; that the river can be
prevented from diversion that It's banks
can be maintained; that the threat of the
descent of old deposits into the river
can be averted and the matter restrained:
that while this will cost great deal of
money, and while it will be difficult to
move Federal and State Governments to
its appropriation, it is not only possible
but probable. But the condition precedent
must be the cessation of the cause of the
evil we combat, and an aid to that con-
summation is interference by the Federal
Government, and which the people must
invoke.