The record-union., 1897-12-22

United States Commissioners appointed
under the Caminetti Act should con-
tinue to permit the building of log and
| brush dams as restraining barriers 10
| permanently impound hydraulic min
| ing debris, when the testimony in the
| woodruff case, to which they certain
J ~ must have access proves that they
| are constantly giving away and the
/ material temporarily held behind them
/ is continually filing our navigable riv-
| ers ana harbors.
! 1t is said that the duties of the pres
| ent commissioners. aside from those
pertaining to hydraulic mines, are suffi-
| Gent TO keep them fully employed, and
| that this new duty now imposed upon
! them does not receive the attention 1t
requires.
i We should insist upon the appoint
ment of a special commission to whom
the sole duty of preventing the de-
! struCtion of our rivers and harbors
should be assigned; and then those
| mines which can permanently and for
all time restrain their debris, and those
only should be permitted to work by
the hydraulic process.
Major Heuer at a late meeting of
Tie 4lllGTS lOHN6HIiffu Is IGpOTttO u
have stated that .he had always been
a friend Of the nliners!" Does the
! United States Government indorse this
statement of a member Of its Engineer
Corps?
1 nave been told by one high in au-
thority in that department that the
Engineer Corps of the War Department
was supposed to work solely for the
i
was not to be influenced by personal
preferences. Such being the case, there
should be no friendship shown to either
| the miners or farmers and a commits
sion of that kind is one we should re-
quest the War Department to send us
to take charge Of this work; and no
! othar duty should be assigned to it un-
til the further destruction of our navi-
gable rivers and harbors has been per-
manently averted.
Having been a. resident of Yuba Coun-
ty since 1850 / am aware of the causes
| which have contributed to the filling
Of the channels of the Yuba and Feath-
er rivers, and the destruction of the
| valuable productive farming lands ad-
jacent TO these rivers. The early min
| ers. using their rockers and quicksilver
machines upon the bars, did not con-
tribute to the filing of the river chan
nels, as they only extracted the gold
from the gravel which formed those
bars, which were always covered by
the rivers during high water periods,
transferring the loosened material TO
| a point a short distance below that
from which it was taken
The use of the sluice and long tom
in washing the material contained in
the ravines and gulches, together with
the ground sluicing of gold bearing
/ earth on the hill sides, added a small
quantity Of matter TO that already in
the river channels. but the larger part
of it being rich alluvial soil did no ap-
! preciable damage, and in some instan-
ces being at high water periods depoS-
tied on the low bottom lands added to
their fertility
Until 1858, when hydraulic mining
/ commenced there was no apparent fill
ing of the river channels.
In the winter of 1923 a large area
of the rich farming lands adjacent to
the Euba River was covered with
sand from the hydraulic mines, and
since that time year after year during
| periods Of high water sand, clay and
gravel have been deposited, until the
| rich bottom lands of the Yuba and
Feather rivers are now covered from
fourteen to forty feet deep with min
| ing debris; and where formerly pro-
ductive farms. orchards, orange groves
and vineyards flourished. now willow,
! cottonwood and alder forests hold pos
session. The once fertile farming lands
/ adjacent to Bear River are now in the
same condition. For some time after
the decision was rendered by Judge
Sawyer in the case of Woodruff VS..
the North Bloomfield ct al.," the rivers
became clear and fish began to seek
their old spawning grounds on the trib-
utariss of the Yuba, Feather and Bear.
Since the hydraulic miners have been
licensed by the Debris Commissioners
to set their monitors at work behind
these subterfuges of dams. the Yuba
/ River has again become so foul that
fish have rarely been seen in it.
Not many months ago Professor Dav-
idson, who. I believe, has always at
| tributed the filing of our rivers and
bays to the washings from plowed agri-
cultural lands and the tracks made by
sheep and cattle grazing on the noun
tain sides, made a report to the Cham
! ber of Commerce of San Francisco ad-
vising that measures should. be taken
to prevent seagoing vessels from de-
posting refuse or ballast in the har-
Dor of San Francisco as the channels
were being filed thereby.
Not one word was written in that
report regarding the fill carried by hy-
dralllic mining.
If my memory is not at fault no less
than two contracts have been let with
in a few years by the United States
| Government to dredge a channel at
Mare Island.
The newspapers reported that it was
/ impossible for the contractors to de-
liver the batteship Oregon at Mare
/ Island, owing to the shoaling of the
/ channel. Major Heuer testified in the
United States Court that the channel OF
the Straits Of Carquinez had shoaled
several feet.
We know that Suisun Bay is shoal-
ing rapidly, and that there is enough
hydraulic mining debris in the Yuba,
/ Feather Bear, American and Sacra-
/ men:o rivers and their tributaries TO
fiji the harbor of San Francisco If hy-
draulc mining was shut down to-day
and the natural water alone was al
/ lowed 10 have it's course.
No dam should be built either for