404 R E S O U Tv C E S OP r A L I F O H X I A . 



every part of the city, was three feet deep in every street ; in 

 some places fifteen feet deep. Gardens were destroyed, fences 

 carried away, domestic animals drowned, furniture ruined, 

 and many of the people driven to take refuge in San Fran- 

 cisco and other towns not afflicted by the general scourge. 

 A long time will pass before the city will recover from the in- 

 juries inflicted upon it by the flood of 1861-'62. 



The assessed value of the taxable property of the city is 

 about $7,000,000 ; the public debt of the city is $1,800,000. 



§ 275. Stockt07i. — Stockton is situated three miles eastward 

 from the San Joaquin River, on the bank of a navigable tide- 

 water slough, or creek (using the word in its British meaning), 

 which is eighty feet wide and eight feet deep. The town site 

 is in the midst of low, flat, tule land, which is intersected by 

 numerous sloughs. The population is about six thousand. The 

 town has a pleasant appearance. Many of the dwellings are 

 neatly built and are surrounded by elegant gardens. Shade-trees 

 are abundant. Fresh water is supplied to the city, for domestic 

 purposes and for irrigating the gardens, by one hundred and 

 fifty windmills, which pump it up through lead pipes, thrust 

 down twenty feet deep into auger holes two inches wide. So 

 abundant is the water in the soil at that depth, that there is no 

 difficulty in obtaining it in this manner. Stockton is nicknamed 

 " The City of Windmills," and indeed the name appears very ap- 

 propriate to the traveller who approaches the town on a windy 

 day, and at a distance sees little save a multitude of great arms 

 revolving furiously above and among the trees and house-tops. 



Stockton is the debarking point for the travellers and mer- 

 chandise on their way from San Francisco to all parts of the 

 basin of the San Joaquin River, including the important 

 mining counties of Mariposa, Tuolumne, and Calaveras. The 

 entire population of the eight counties in the basin of the San 

 Joaquin River is, according to the census of 1860, 60,837, 

 scattered over an area of about 16,000 square miles. During 

 the winter, at least in wet times, the roads leading out of 

 Stockton are very muddy, but when the ground is dry, im- 



