346 Transactions op the 



overflows. 



The Sacramento Kiver, it is well known, is subject to more frequent 

 overflows than the San Joaquin. The cause of these more frequent over- 

 flows is attributable to the fact that the Sacramento has a number of 

 large branches leading direct from the Sierras, and bring to it large 

 accessions of water, while it has but one channel through which to 

 convey these waters until they reach the head of Gravel Island, where 

 they meet a heavy ebbing and flowing of the tide. The San Joaquin, on 

 the contrary, as we have seen, is divided into three about equal channels, 

 some twelve miles above Stockton, which do not again unite until within 

 a few miles of the Sacramento, when another system or network of 

 sloughs come immediately to its relief, and assists in conveying its waters 

 to the broad and deep channel opposite Sherman Island. Again, there 

 is more mining on the Sacramento and its tributaries than on the San 

 Joaquin, and this fact, coupled with the more frequent overflows, accounts 

 for the higher banks and heavier soil of its islands. The difference in 

 timber and vegetation follows the difference in soil — the heavier the soil, 

 dampness being equal, the heavier the growth of trees and vegetation. 



TULE ISLANDS AS HOMES. 



There is but little doubt that most if not all the islands that we have 

 named can be reclaimed so as to render these lands very valuable — more 

 reliable, in fact, for producing annual crops, or in other words, less liable 

 to failures on account of overflows, than the uplands are on account of 

 drought. Indeed, with the facilities they possess for irrigation, they 

 may be kept up to a good degree of fertility under a system of constant 

 cropping for a long series of years, or an indefinite time, without any 

 other fertilizing applications except what will be supplied from the 

 water. But the important question in reference to their settlement is, 

 can they be made so secure against overflows in such times as eighteen 

 hundred and fifty-two and eighteen hundred and sixty-two as to render 

 property of all descriptions and the lives of the inhabitants safe upon 

 them? For all ordinary seasons we are of the opinion that the present 

 plan of reclamation — ditches and levees — provided always that the 

 levees are made sufficiently high and strong, and watched with care, and 

 kept in good repair, will render them safe not only for the accumulation 

 of property but as homes for the families of their occupants. But how 

 will it be in case of such a flood as that of eighteen hundred and sixty- 

 two, when all the lower country becomes so filled up with the accumu- 

 lated waters as to check the current in the Sacramento Eiver as high up 

 as the City of Sacramento and in the San Joaquin at Stockton? These 

 islands were then all under water to a depth of equal to if not greater 

 than any of the levees being constructed upon them. When these 

 islands are all leveed, as is now the intention to do, and an attempt is 

 thus made to confine such a bulk of water in the narrow sloughs, will it 

 not necessarily be forced up to a greater hight than when allowed to 

 spread out over hundreds of thousands of acres in extent? 



This question addresses itself not only to the individual who owns 

 land here and who proposes to make a home for himself and family, or 

 to have others do so, but it addresses itself to the people of the entire 

 State — to the State Government — whose duty it is not only to reclaim 



