The record-union., 1897-05-20
THE LEVEES and CREVASSES
Inspection Of Shoals and Currents OF
the River.
The Department of Public works
Takes a Trip Up and Down
the Sacramento.

Yesterday morning a party left this
city for a trip on the river, the results
of which mean much for the reSideIits
of Sacramento and the dwellers on the
river below here.
At O'Clock the steamer Dover, cap
tain J. w. Condrey and Pilot T. ..
Ralph in charge with Old GLORY IylhS
at her bow. pushed off into the stream
for trip of investigation up the river
as far as the Hershey break and down
the river to Rio Vista The party on
board consisted of Commissioner OF
Public Works E. Z. Leake, Engineers
]. r. Price, NJ. A. Nourse and G. N
Randall, the Auditing Board OF the
Commissioner of Public Works, con-
sisting of II. J. Cochrane and @. w.
Patterson of Stockton: John Markley,
Gillis Doty and T. B. Hall of Sacramen-
to; Robert Cosner, Secretary of the
Anti-Debris Association: j. w. Bailey,
George L. Clarke and a Record I'm
ion' reporter.
The object of the trip was to inspect
the condition of the river, its currents
and the levees and breaks as a basis
for the work contemplated for the
deepening of the river channel.
The prov of the boat was turned
up the river and she shot through the
draw and proceeded on her way, up
past the Monument Ranch. the scene
of the explosion of the Belle. where so
many lives We're sacrificed, up to the
Butcher break. where the water runs
out of the river as deep and swift as a
creek, past many minor breaks all
along the levee, till the big Hershey
l. ai+
is reached This is 500 feet long, 600
feet of it being deep water and the
upper 400 feet of it having water ten
feet deep running out of it.
Calculating the average depth of
water running out of this break at
two feet, there would be 10000 square
feet of water running out of it into the
tule basin at the present stage of the
river. From here to the Butcher break,
three miles below, the levee on the
right bank is practically destroyed,
there being a number of crevasses as
well as some on the opposite bank. Cal
culating the water running out of the
other breaks at S,GO0 square feet al
together would make n, 900 square feet
of water pouring out into the tules and
cutting a path through the original
ground that the river may one day
flow through if the Hershey break is
not soon closed. If all these breaks
Were closed the river at its present
stage would carry all the water at pres
ent running through them and would
still lack two feet of high water mark.
More than shat, the river would scour
out and deepen its channel. The river
has filled in with slickens below the
lower break since 1887, at Ten Mile
Shoals sufficient to raise the bottom
three feet for four miles.
DOWN THE RIVER
Turning at the Hershey break after
q short struggle with the current that
tried to draw the boat into the Gre
vase, the party started down the river
Past FreeOOrt, past the long line of
orchards that ornament the bank on
the Sacramento side, past the fine resi-
dences of Johnston, Hollister, Green.
Runyon and others: past Merritt and
Sutter Islands. with their cultivated
fields. to Grand Island; past Courtland
and Walnut Grove into Old River;
past Grand Island. with its magnificent
new levee. raised far above the highest
water yet known, and it's productive
ranches; past Andrus and Brannan ISL
ands. sped the boat.
Iseton is passed. the house boats of
the fishermen clustered together and
the small boats drifting for salmon ara
left behind and Rio Vista appears, with
Wood Island dividing the river into
two parts and the Montezuma Hills
for a background, and still further in
the distance the Diablo range. Just be-
fore this point is reached the Newtown
Shoals make the river shallow very
badly for about 1000 feet above the
head of Wood Island. the river widen
ing out in one place to 1900 feet. on
the Rio Vista side of Wood Island.
from ;he head down, the water runs
from thirty to sixty feet deep and is
very deep below the lower end of the
island. while at the upper end it has
only an average depth of five feet and a
narrow channel. Below the junction of
Steamboat Slough and Old River. some
distance above the shoals, the channel
IS narrowed to about GOO feet from low
water TO low water and is forty feet
deep. As soon as the river begins 80
widen, however. the deposit begins to
settle and the water begins to shoal.
Engineer Prices plan is to deepen the
channel between Rio Vista and Wood
Island first. so as to let the current
wash down the sand and slickens of the
shoals He would then close the en-
trance of the channel on the Sacra-
mento side of Wood Island and dredge