440 Transactions of the 



central canal shall be extended to Moore's Landing that countiy will be 

 in communication b}' permanent water navigation with the bay and 

 ocean. 



These works have been construetcd by Mr. M. Ilangroom, civil en- 

 gineer. Among the gentlemen prominently connected with the enter- 

 prise as projectors ami builders are Messrs. John Center. J. Morn .Moss, 

 Henry Miller, George H. Howard, I. Friedlander, Charles Lux and 

 others, to whom must be added Mr. J. M. Brereton, civil engineer, for 

 some years past prominently engaged on the Government irrigation 

 works in India. This gentleman, who is consulting engineer, projected 

 the present works, and by his exposition of their advantages gave the 

 impulse that led to their construction. 



THE SYSTEM IN PEACTICE. 



CANAL NAVIGATION OPENED. 



The Californian who inspects these works for the first time will be 

 fortunate if his first intimation of their proximity shall be the sight of 

 a mast sweeping along the plain, a tow line from the head of which, 

 together with the familiar motive power at the end of it, shall quicken 

 to his imagination with all force and consequences the grand fact that 

 canal navigation has opened in California. The first four boats were 

 constructed by the company for the transportation of their own material 

 and supplies. They are built upon an English model, less cumbersome 

 and "logy" than the American canal boat — dimensions, sixty-three feet 

 length by nine feet eight inches beam. This boat carries sixteen tons 

 weight to each foot of draft. A movable gunwale permits them to be 

 loaded to a draft of four feet — i. e., to carry a cargo of sixiy four tons. 

 Thus loaded, they are towed with the stream (northwardly) by a single 

 animal as rapidly as he can w T alk. Returning light, the same beast fur- 

 nishes sufficient power to move the boat up stream. Larger boats of 

 similar model have since been constructed. These facts, thus boldly 

 stated, need no elaboration to enable the intelligent mind to grasp their 

 bearings upon the '''transportation problem" which still engages so 

 much of the public attention. They show how the canal tends to neu- 

 tralize distance from tide water as an element in the determination of 

 land values; how it brings the rich river bottoms of Tulare and Kern 

 Counties as near to market as many lands in the bay district itself; how 

 it renders possible the profitable cultivation of small grains in regions 

 where the advent even of the railroad still leaves the farmer hopelessly 

 beyond reach of the export market. To the dwellers on the upper Sac- 

 ramento it is not less important than to those on the San Joaquin, and 

 points a significant finger to the direction which may profitably engage 

 energies and resources that have heretofore spent unprofitable force on 

 schemes of narrow gauge railway. California has made one great 

 bound In the path of wealth since the opening of her railway era. 

 Here we see, in the silently moving and heavy laden canal boat, the 

 dawn of a second era, whose fruits shall be not less important than the 

 first. Will they not, in fact, far transcend them in magnitude? Is it 

 not plain that these two elements of transportation working together 

 present the solution, in its lull sense, of the problem which is before the 

 country? The great bulk of produce from the soil, low in value to the 

 ton, but aggregating millions of money in its many thousand tons, floats 



