338 Transactions of the 



into the valleys to the points where the latter empty into the former, 

 and from thereon until the former reach and lose themselves in the bays 

 leading into the Pacific Ocean. 



Originally these rivers are supposed to have flowed through the lowest 

 points in the valleys, but the annual overflows to which they are subject 

 nave gradually deposited debris and sediment on their immediate banks 

 until all through the upper portions of the courses and until they 

 approach their mouths, these banks are from ten to twenty feet higher 

 than the lands, from one half mile to three miles back, so that all our 

 navigable rivers are literally "highways of commerce." Into these low 

 lands or basins thus formed empty numerous creeks from the foothills 

 of the Sierra Nevadas and Coast .Range of mountains, and the overflows of 

 the rivers at high stages of water keep them full during the wet seasons, 

 and generally well into the Summers. Hence the soil becomes wet and 

 swampy, and all vegetable growth coarse and rank. 



To this coarse grass the Indians gave the name of "tule," and this 

 name has hence been applied to the lands themselves. 



As the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers approach the straits and 

 bays into which they flow — only a few miles apart — their banks gradu- 

 ally become lower and lower and the distance back to the edges of the 

 tules becomes less, until finally the rivers themselves seem to break up 

 into a great number of smaller rivers or watercourses, called sloughs. 

 These sloughs stretch out to the right and left, dividing the tule lands 

 into a great number of islands of all shapes and sizes, until hundreds of 

 thousands of acres are thus cut up and surrounded by a system or net 

 work of navigable watercourses. 



The islands thus formed, like the banks of the main rivers, are gener- 

 ally higher next the water's edge than in their centers, and for similar 

 reasons; but these banks are generally but little above high tide at the 

 low stage of water in the Summer season. The waters of the rivers, 

 however, having here so many channels through which to flow, are com- 

 paratively but little affected by a rise which overflows the banks of the 

 main rivers and floods the whole country above. Hence it is compara- 

 tively a much easier task to keep the waters of the sloughs from over- 

 flowing these islands than it is to keep the waters of the main rivers 

 higher up the country from overflowing their banks and flooding the 

 tule lands we have described as stretching along on either side of them. 



THE IMPORTANT FACT 



So potent to all now, has only been discovered and practically appre- 

 ciated by the people of this State, after an experience of nearly twenty- 

 years, derived from an almost constant yet fruitless and costly effort to 

 reclaim the tule lands along the main rivers of the State. 



For the discovery and practical demonstration of this valuable truth 

 we are indebted to a few humble farmers, who some twelve or fifteen 

 years since settled upon Sherman Island, and who have since that time 

 pretty effectually reclaimed the whole island from overflow and brought 

 it into a good state of cultivation. In doing so they have acquired for 

 themselves and their families a good competency, if not a fortune. 

 While these men were struggling along from year to } 7 ear, alternately 

 cultivating their crops and working on their levees, 



