SOCIETY. 71 



mercial advantages, he became the founder and father of the 

 town, where he still resides. The name was selected in hon- 

 or of Commodore Stockton, who commanded the American 

 naval forces on this coast during the war with Mexico, and 

 contributed much to the conquest of California. The town, 

 like Sacramento and Marysville, was overflowed during the 

 great flood of 1862, the water having covered all the streets 

 on the llth of January, and stood for days more than a foot 

 deep, in the highest of them. 



The Central Pacific Railroad runs through Stockton, and a 

 rail road twenty miles long, from Milton, in Calaveras County, 

 terminates there. 



A company has been organized to cut a canal thirteen miles 

 long, from Stockton to Venice, on the San Joaquin River, 

 below which point the channel is twenty feet deep, and more 

 than a hundred yards wide. Gen. B. S. Alexander, having 

 examined the country, has made a written report, to the effect 

 that the project is practicable, and that a canal 106 feet wide 

 at the water line, 20 feet deep at mean tide, and 12 miles long, 

 will cost $1,207,000 with certain basins and canals. He adds 

 that " the day is coming, if it has not already come, when the 

 San Joaquin Valley will demand a cheaper outlet for its pro- 

 ductions than it is possible to obtain by railroad or a system 

 of railroads, and a narrow, crooked, and shallow river." The 

 company propose to reduce the expense to $843,000 by reduc- 

 ing the width three feet, the depth one foot, and omitting sev- 

 eral of the basins designed for turn-outs and other purposes. 



The San Joaquin Valley Railroad forms a junction with the 

 Central Pacific at Lathrop, eight miles south of Stockton. 



48. Vallejo and Carquinez. Vallejo, situated on an arm 

 of San Pablo Bay, called Napa Bay, Vallejo Bay, or Mare 

 Island Strait, is twenty-three miles from San Francisco in a 

 northeastward direction ; the harbor is five miles long, a 

 quarter of a mile wide, thirty feet deep, with excellent protec- 

 tion against the winds, arid good holding ground. The chan- 



