SOCIETY. 415 
1858. It is built at the head of navigation of the Pacheco 
Slough, and is the shipping port of Pacheco, San Ramon, Di- 
ablo and Taylor valleys. The distance to Martinez is four 
miles, further than farmers like to haul their grain, when they 
can avoid it. To bring the shipping poimt nearer to them, 
Pacheco was built. The distance from Pacheco to the bay, in 
a straight line through the tule land, is about four miles; ‘the 
distance by the slough is six miles. The slough is bare at low 
water; at high water it is navigable for sloops and schooners 
drawing six feet. In 1859 Pacheco shipped 180,000 sacks of 
grain. The population is about six hundred. 
§ 290. Suisun.—Suisun, a village of about sixty houses, is 
on the western bank of the Suisun Slough in Solano county, 
about ten miles in a direct line from Suisun Bay and sixteen 
miles by the slough. The place was commenced on a little 
island, a couple of hundred yards in diameter, and no part of 
it more than a foot above the highest tide. It is surrounded 
by tules, or salt-water rushes, growing on land overflowed at 
every high tide and bare at low tide. Two roads lead from 
the dry land of the valley to the city—-one of them a plank- 
road, now in a very dilapidated condition. Most of the streets 
are subject to overflow by spring tides, and the marks of the 
water can be seen upon them even when dry. A few lots have 
been raised above high tide by bringing earth from other 
places, and enclosures are made by digging ditches, in which 
the water is never more than two feet below the surface. The 
island, being in the tule, was not included in the Suisun grant, 
and it was claimed, in 1853, by two men who laid off the town, 
and who are now in litigation with each other about the un- 
sold land, The place owes its importance to its advantages 
as the shipping point of the valley. The Suisun Slough is 
said to be the best slough in the state; that means, that it is 
wider and deeper than the sloughs through which vessels 
reach Stockton, Sonoma, Napa, San Antonio, Petaluma, Pa- 
checo, and Alviso. Vessels drawing nine feet of water can 
onter the slough. The town is sixty-five miles from San Fran- 
