340 Transactions of the 



prices in the market for table use, being very large, well covered, and ot 

 most excellent flavor. 



We went back from the river about a mile here for the purpose of 

 examining the soil where a deep ditch was being cut; this ditch being 

 the upper end of the canal which is to be dug through the center of the 

 island for drainage purposes. We found the surface, about a foot deep, 

 to be a line yellowish sediment of tule deposit; then to the depth of 

 about tour feet more the soil was a mixture of loam and clay, checkered 

 with streaks of decayed vegetable matter. We did not see the soil 

 deeper down, but were apprised by Mr. Kerehival. who had the ditch 

 dug, that immediately underlying this clay was a strata of some four or 

 five feet deep of almost unmixed decayed vegetable matter, having much 

 the appearance of a rotten dunghill. This island is about twelve miles 

 long, averages about three miles wide, and contains about seventeen 

 thousand three hundred acres; of this about seven thousand acres, 

 mostly next the river banks, is owned by settlers. About two thousand 

 acres, running diagonally across the island from water to water, is owned 

 b}' William Gwynn and Henry Miller, of Sacramento, and the balance, 

 the center portion, is owned by George I>. Roberts. 



It is estimate I that six dollars and thirty cents per acre will defray 

 the entire expense of the work necessary to keep the water on this 

 island. The levee around the island will be about twenty-nine miles 

 long; about twenty miles of which is already completed and the balance 

 will be done in five weeks time. The work is let to Chinamen by the 

 job, at from twelve to seventeen cents per cubic yard. There are over 

 five hundred Chinamen now at work on the Levee. The average width 

 of the base of the levee is thirty feet; it is six feet high. The width of 

 the top is three feet, and the inside slope is one and a half to one, the 

 outside is two and a half to one. The earth is taken from the outside or 

 next the river. All the sloughs making into the island are substantially 

 dammed and provided with flood gates, so arranged that the gaics clo 

 at high tide and open at low tide; so that while the water is prevented 

 from passing in, all the seepage water runs out. The same gates will 

 answer the purpose of irrigation, should it ever become necessary. 



NEXT YEAR'S CROP. 



It is the intention of the owners of the tule land on this island to have 

 it all cultivated and cropped next season. They propose to lease it on 

 shares for a term of three years. The tule is now being burned off of 

 some portions of it, and all will soon be in condition to burn. After the 

 tule is burned, it is expected that most of the land on this island will 

 require to be plowed before sowing. On the islands, lower down, such 

 as Sherman and Twitchell, the surface being composed mostly of decayed 

 vegetable matter, when once dry, will burn down until the fire reaches 

 the water, and is stopped by it. On Grand Island, as we have stated. 

 this same vegetable matter is found in most places, some five feet below 

 the surface, having been covered by late deposits of sediment which is 

 gradually forming into loam and clay. 



The sediment and clay, however, instead of raising the surface of the 

 land equal to the thickness of their deposit, seem by their weight to 

 have sunk the vegetable matter nearly that much into the water except 

 near the banks where the soil is thickly studded with the roots of trees, 

 wi. ih em to have held the soil to its normal position. Thil 

 secures to this island all the advantages of water near the surface, and 



