State Agricultural Society. 371 



of the one was made by sediment brought down by the river; the other, 

 by the creeks running- from the low hills. The fall of the river from 

 the upper end of the county to Colusa is eighteen inches to the mile, 

 and from that place down, it is six inches onlj'-. As a consequence of 

 this, the upper river has more rapids and bars, and it also washes its 

 banks anil changes its position more. The average width of the river 

 is something over three hundred feet. The height of the banks at low 

 water is about twenty-one feet. About eighteen miles above the south 

 line of the count3 T , Butte Slough, which is over one hundred feet wide, 

 runs out of the river on the east side as soon as there is any rise what- 

 ever in the river, and spreads out over the tule lands of Sutter County. 

 Butte Creek empties into this slough about three miles below its head, 

 and these streams form the eastern and southern boundary of the county 

 on that side of the river. 



SYCAMORE SLOUGH 



Makes out from the river, on the west side, some four miles below Butte 

 Slough, and runs about six miles in a southwesterly direction, turns 

 more to the south and runs southeast, and in ten or twelve miles loses 

 its channel in the tule. But the great slough putting into the river 

 from the tule at Knight's Landing, in Yolo County, and about thirty 

 miles from the head of the slough, takes the name of the Lower Syca- 

 more, and the body of land between the river and the slough, is known 

 as Grand Island. This island, partlj^ in Colusa and partly in Yolo 

 Count}', is all of the river formation, and is as fine land as any in the 

 world. No water runs through the slough until the river rises about 

 four feet above low water. The river grows narrower as those sloughs 

 run out. 



TIMBER. 



The river is skirted on either side with a growth of timber, averaging 

 a mile in width, principally ouks, with sycamore, Cottonwood, and ash. 

 Much of this along the lower end of the county has been cut off, and 

 sold in the shape of cordwood — supplying the steamers on the river, 

 and the City of Sacramento; some of it, in fact, going to San Francisco. 

 This timber is not used for building purposes. Some of the low hills 

 are covered with a kind of post oak and digger pine, while the others 

 are bald. Along the Coast .Range, there is much very fine pine timber, 

 but as yet there has been but little of it used, lumber of the same kind 

 being more accessible in the mountains on the east side of the valley. 

 This will become valuable in the future. 



WATER. 



People in the valley have to depend upon wells for water. The aver- 

 age depth of wells is, perhaps, about twenty feet. All along the river 

 lauds water is found in the wells when a level of the water in the river 

 is reached. The depth on the plains varies somewhat with the local- 

 ities, but over nine tenths of the county is reached in from ten to twenty 

 feet. There is one place in the southwestern portion of the county 

 where water is not reached in less than seventy-five to one hundred feet, 

 and this is not higher than the other portions of the plains. This dis- 

 trict has a queer geological formation, indicating that it has at one time 

 sunk down below the level of the country around it. In digging wells 



