The herald., 1896-12-30

WOuiQ I'LL tnat land with tracks, ana no
one could get control of them. The
Southern Pacific has plenty of money to
do this. Mr. Huntington said in the con-
gressional hearing that it cost only
$4,000 a mile to build a road. The ex-
preston of law concerning the right of
roads to build through town is as broad
as language can make it, and there is no
instance of its being limited. San Pedro
is built up on its commercial interests
and possibilities of future growth and
development. If all the land at Santa
Monica owned by Jones were available,
there still would not be more than
enough for the business of a harbor.
Tracks are not all that is required for the
business of extensive commerce. The
cost of wharves would be very much
greater at Santa Monica than at San
Pedro. The government report shows
that the five-fathom line comes within
800 feet of the inner harbor, the place for
drydocks, in the speakers judgment
1t would be impossible to build an
other road west Of Port Los Angeles,
though some other road might build to
Point Dune and play the same trick the
Southern Pacific did for Redondo. The
speaker did not believe that under the
/ law any road can use that wharf without
paying tribute to the owners. In case the
Southern Pacific heard of any other road
coming, and If it should occupy the land,
this state that could condemn the land.
The bluff is IT'S feet high, and he could
not see what any road could do with
such mountain. The approaches would
cost SO much that any other company
would be al the mercy of the road which
did not have to be at this outlay Tun-
nels are what engineers dread in rail
road building, and would be so costly
to maintain that it would so seriously
handicap a competing road that it could
not do business there. The canyon would
be so expensive as to practically debar
any road from undertaking to build
through it.
Mr.. Gibbon said he had never seen
position better entrenched than the
company Mr.. Hood represents had pro-
vided for.
SANTA MONICA IN REBUTTAL
Admiral Walker announced that Santa
Monica would now have the floor in
rebuttal, but that no new evidence
would be allowed.
Capt Colin Salmond was presented by
Mr. Corthell. The testimony the witness
proposed to disprove in rebuttal was the
ocean swell, angling of waves at As de-
grees around a breakwater and the
alongshOre currents.
Capt Salmond has been on the sea
twenty seven years, fifteen of which
have been on this coast. He was an off,
GER for. five years on the mail steamers
between San Francisco and China. He
was formerly British seaman and
holds certificate from the British board
of trade for good seamanship At pres
ent he is master of the collier yelling
ton trading between British Columbia
and this coast The Wellington has 1867
tonnage and draft of twenty-one feet.
The Southern Pacific desired to charter
t e Wellington and the owners ordered
ut T A crnJn Il
ascertain il it was safe place to land
coal. He made four consecutive trips
had no difficulty and reported to the
owners that he considered 1T a safe place.
Since then they had never lost anything.
In 1895 they heard conflicting accounts of
its safety as a harbor. He was sent
again and experienced a heavy gale of
wind. For the first time he was unable
to land the wind being so strong as to
actually blow the tugs out, endangering
the lives of the men. The sea- however,
did not rise as 1t does in the open ocean
He observed that 1t ran high toward
Santa Monica and he took buggy and
drove down the beach. He could not un-
derstand why it was SO much quieter
at the pier and for his own advantage
had studied it. little dreaming that he
should be called upon to show his chart.
The direction of sea swells, the captain
has learned, Is east by north. The west
erly swell is the same in the Atlantic
as in the Pacific ocean. He can corrob-
crate Captain AleXanders opinion of
Santa Barbara being quiet harbor.
The chain of islands fifty-eight miles
long and twelve miles wide forms a
natural barrier for Santa Monica bay.
Santa Monica being in the protected
area would be sheltered from the swells.
Yesterday one swell came in at Santa
Monica, but at San Pedro there were
two. The conclusion he arrived at is
that during a strong gale of wind the
sea at the former place does not rise
The prevailing set of the currents he has
observed to be rorth and west. In his
experience any obstruction in the water
sets out instead of ins consequently the
captain thinks that waves would not
roll in behind breakwater at an angle.
A peculiar feature of this coast from
Cape Flattery southwest Is that the
wind blows up the coast; one ship off
shore may have a southwest wind and
another closer in may have it northwest.
In the protected area where the west
erly swell is checked the waves strike
the shore angling. The swells at Santa
Monica as they reach the shore are
not swells-in the protected area they
do not exist. In that bay the wind is
checked by the San Pedro hills, and if
the wind is checked no sea Is raised.
At the conclusion of Captain Salmonds
testimony the session was adjourned
until 10 o'clock today.