78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



country. It is the amount of water that passes into 

 the soil, not the amount of rainfall, that makes a region 

 garden or desert." 



The drainage basin of the Sacramento River in- 

 cludes the greater part of northern California. It has 

 been occupied by Anglo-Saxon settlers for the last 

 fifty years. During the first portion of the American 

 occupation of this State, sea-going vessels are reported 

 to have proceeded up stream as far as the present city 

 of Sacramento. The tidal range of the river was 

 observed also at this point. Placer mining was the 

 first industry. This work consisted in washing the 

 oriferous gravels found along the western foothills of 

 the Sierra Nevadas. The resulting debris was dis- 

 charged into the streams and has to a very material 

 extent filled their channels, so that to-day the head 

 of tidal water is many miles below Sacramento, near 

 the upper end of Grand Island, and only flat bottom 

 river steamboats are able to ascend the Sacramento 

 River as far as the city of that name. This stream 

 condition has been still further aggravated by the 

 destruction of extensive areas of forest, both by fire, 

 lumbering, and sheep grazing. Yet the lumber in- 

 dustry is but in its infancy in this section, and plans 

 are being perfected to cut down great areas of virgin 

 forest. Extensive forest reserves have been provis- 

 ionally set aside, covering most of the remaining tim- 

 bered portions of the basin. These contemplated re- 

 serves have been greeted with a storm of public protest 

 from central and northern California that has been 

 hard to allay. In February, 1904, northern Califor- 

 nia was visited by heavy rain storms. While the 

 precipitation was great, according to the statement of 

 Professor McAdie, of the Weather Bureau, it was by 

 no means the heaviest rain which has occurred in this 



