Santee River

“ We are now in the Salinas Valley, in proportion like a long, narrow groove 100 miles long cut in the face of the country. Through it runs the Salinas River, winding and bending with great sweeps through its sandy bed. At midsummer it is dried up completely, and, from the long wooden bridges that cross and re-cross it, looks like a sandy sea-beach, with fences across from one bank to the other to stop the cattle straying!
Along this valley blows a constant cool wind from the sea in the north. All day long it blows, week in, week out. ”

“ Men? The valley was suddenly alive with them, choking the roads in heavy silent lines; they were in the lanes, they plodded through the orchards, they swarmed across the hills, column on column, until the entire country seemed flowing forward in steady streams. Sandy River awoke, restlessly listening; lights glimmered behind darkened windows; a heavier, vaguer rumor grew, hanging along the hills. It increased to a shaking, throbbing monotone, like the far dissonance of summer thunder! ”

“ Sandy was almost the most wonderful spot in the world. It was, as most swimming holes are, on the down-stream side of a bridge. The little river widened out, on its way through the meadows, here and there into swimming holes of greater or less desirability. There was Lob's Pond, by the mill, and Deep Pool, and Musk Rat, and Little Sandy. But Sandy was the best of them all. It was shaded on one side by great trees, and the banks were hidden from the road by alder screens. At one end there was a shelving bottom, of clean sand, where the “little kids” who couldn't swim sported in safety. ”

“ If for some unforeseen and improbable cause the present attempt should fail or be abandoned, and no other attempts inaugurated, the water would gradually cut the present irrigation canal so deep that the entire flow of the river would be side-tracked into Salton Sea. The water would slowly rise until a lake would be created as large in area as, or larger than, Great Salt Lake of Utah, and the entire Imperial Valley, which thus far has not suffered, would be covered with water. ”

“ Sandy Lake.—The first view of this body of water was obtained from one of those eminences situated at the influx of the west Savanna River.
This lake is bounded, on its western borders, by the delta of the Mississippi; its outlet is about two miles in length. We here first beheld the object of our search. The soil on its banks is of the richest alluvial character. From this point, dense forests and a moderately elevated soil, varying from three or four to fifteen feet, confined the view, on either side, during more than two days' march. ”

“ Sandy Lake, where ended my voyaging on the Mississippi, is one of the most famous lakes of the northwest. It lies only about three miles east of the great river, and almost directly west from Lake Superior. Over the intervening route which connects the two water wonders of our country, more furs and Indian goods have been transported, than over any other trail in the wilderness. The lake received its name from the French, on account of its sandy shores, which are remarkably beautiful, abounding in agates and cornelians. ”

“ The remaining villages on the eastern slopes of the Caravayan Andes are Patambuco, Sandia, Cuyo-cuyo, Quiaca, Sina, and the farm of Saqui, on the frontier of Bolivia. The river of Sandia has one of its sources near the pass twenty miles north-east of Crucero, whence it flows past Sandia, and for many leagues down a narrow gorge, with magnificent mountains rising up abruptly on either side. At a distance of twenty miles below Sandia, in a part of the ravine called Ypara, the coca and coffee plantations commence, at a height of 5000 feet above the sea. ”

“ It receives the discharges of a number of smaller lakes in the vicinity, among them one called Aitkin by Nicollet. Its principal feeders are two in number. One of these comes in at the southernmost end of the lake, and takes the name of Sandy, Sandy Lake, or Rice Lake r. The N. P. R. R. crosses this stream near McGregor, which is 12 m. by the wagon-road southward from the discharge of the lake. This river has a main branch from Manomin or Rice l.; and either this branch or the whole river is the Menomeny-sibi or Wild Oats r. of Beltrami. The other main affluent of Sandy l. ”

“ This is in turn dissolved by every successive rain, and carried off into the Saline river, giving to its water the brackish taste, from which it has derived its name. There is a barrenness around the stream, contrasting strongly with the other rivers that grace the prairie. Around them is always a rich forest of the deepest, rankest green. Every thing marks the luxuriance of the soil, and the nourishment yielded by the streams to the lofty trees which hang like guardians over their waters.
But the Saline is far different. There107 are no groves to fringe its banks. ”

“ I lodged at the house of a planter not far from Vance's Ferry, on the Santee, where I passed the evening with an intelligent and venerable woman (Mrs. Buxton) eighty-four years of age. She was a maiden of seventeen when the armies of Greene and Rawdon made lively times in the region of the Upper Santee, Catawba, Saluda, and Broad rivers. She knew Marion, and Sumter, and Horry, and other less famous partisans, who were frequently at her father's home, on the verge of a swamp not far from the High Hills of Santee. ”

“ If Sandy Lake had, on emerging from the wilderness, impressed us with its rural beauty, this far transcended it in the variety and extent of outlines, and that oceanic amplitude of freshness, which so often inspires admiration in beholding the interior American lakes. ”

“ Judging from the height that drift-wood was lodged in the branches of the trees, the floods rise about fifty feet; the regular channel is thirty yards wide; on the banks red, green, and white shales are exposed, but the bed of the creek is generally sandy. A large tributary appears to join this creek from the west, in which direction a large valley extends fifteen miles. At 3 p.m. steered east, and passed to the south of a remarkable sandstone hill, which we named Mount Sandiman, and at 5.30 reached the bank of the Victoria coming from the south-south-east ”

“ South of the plains the Big Sandy joins the Green from the east. South of the Big Sandy a long zone of sand-dunes stretches eastward. The western winds blowing up the valley drift these sands from hill to hill, so that the hills themselves are slowly journeying eastward on the wings of arid gales, and sand tempests may be encountered more terrible than storms of snow or hail. Here the northern boundary of the Plateau Province is found, for mesas and high table-lands are found on either side of the river. ”

“ He black man, but he treat you jes like white man."
Jacob helped me launch my boat through the soft mud, which nearly stalled us; and following his directions I paddled across the South Santee and coasted down to Alligator Creek, where extensive marshes, covered by tall reeds, hid the landscape from my view. About half a mile from the mouth of the creek, which watercourse was on my direct route to Bull's Bay, a large tide-gate was found at the mouth of a canal. This being wide open, I pushed up the canal to a low point of land which rose like an island out of the rushes. ”

“ June 27.—This day, eight miles of dead level, sage, sandy plain, brought us to Big Sandy, a stream about four rods wide and from three to five inches deep. Here we lay till next morning.
June 28.—This day we followed down course of the stream on a high sage plain, destitute of anything but sage, for 17 miles. Here drove down to the stream and camped. We have good grass here and sage for fuel. Here we have one snowy range on each side of us; the Wind river and Bear River mountains, either of them not less than 40 or 50 miles of us. Weather cool and windy. The roads are very good. ”

“ Sandusky Plains, lying on the high ground between the head waters of the Whetstone branch of the Scioto river, and the waters of streams running into Lake Erie, are still more extensive than those of Pickaway, covered with a coarse, tall grass, intermixed with weeds, with here and there a tree, presenting to the eye a landscape of great extent.
The moist prairies generally lie along some stream, or at the head of one, on level land, or on that which gently descends. The moist prairies are too wet for trees to grow on them ”

“ In course of time also, canals, were it only a few yards in length, might be formed for the purpose of connecting the stream by a more direct channel, instead of compelling ascending vessels to navigate the continued sinuosities of the river throughout its entire course.
Swan Hill, a green oasis rising amidst what is, apparently, a desert of reeds, is a valuable station, containing some excellent pasture. Indeed, from these very reeds, which are annually burnt, springs up a “second growth,” affording admirable food for cattle ”

“ It would be nearly as easy to dig a river at once for the purpose, and pump it full; in other words, to make another canal, twice as wonderful as the present. The rail-road is a better scheme by far. In winter the traffic is continued [Pg 14] by sleighs on the canal ice: and a pretty sight it must be.
The aspect of the valley was really beautiful last June. It must have made the Mohawk Indians heart-sore to part with it in its former quiet state; but now there is more beauty, as well as more life. There are farms, in every stage of advancement, with all the stir of life about them ”

“ When the month was past and Singin' Sandy's day rolled round again for the ninth time, it was spring time, and the river was bankfull from the spring rise and yellow as paint with mud and full of drift and brush. Out from shore a piece, in the current, floating snags were going down, thick as harrow teeth, all pointing the same way like big black fish going to spawn. Early that morning, the river had bitten out a chunk of crumbly clay bank and took a cabin in along with it, and there was a hard job saving a couple of women and a whole shoal of young ones. ”

“ Wasteful methods of lumbering, together with frequent forest fires and man’s utter disregard for the future, have already brought about the necessity for reforestation in many mountain sections. As far back as 1886 out of the Big Sandy alone was run $1,500,000 worth of timber.
Rafts of logs carpeted the Big Sandy River and at its mouth was the largest round timber market in the world. With its row of riverfront saloons Catlettsburg, between the Big Sandy and the Ohio Rivers, was then called the wettest spot on earth. Through its narrow streets strode loggers and raftsmen. ”

“ First, the prevention of floods and second, the improvement for navigation. In dealing with the first aspect nothing could be better than deepening the river by dredging. In the improvement of the Canton Approach and Harbor and also of the Canton Delta, we have to cut a deep channel right from the deep sea up to Sainam. In the improvement of the lower part of the North River, we have simply to continue the cutting process higher up until we have a deep channel, say 15 to 20 feet as far as the Tsingyuen Gorge, either by artificial or natural means. ”

“ As the summer flood approached its maximum, in the latter part of June, the crevasse widened to more than half a mile, and the whole river, rushing through the break, spread out over an area eight or ten miles in width, and then, collecting in separate streams as it ran down the slope of the basin, discharged at last into the Salton Sea through the flooded channel of the New River barranca. Thousands of acres of land, covered with growing crops, were inundated, and thousands of acres more were so eroded and furrowed by the torrential streams that they never could be cultivated again. ”

“ The woods abound with the finest kind of untouched timber; the land is fertile in the extreme; and the rivers, streams, and lakes abound with fish. In short, had the Trent Canal been finished, instead of the miserable and decaying timber-slides, which now encumber that noble river, another million of inhabitants would, in ten years more, have filled up the forests, which are now only penetrated by the Indian or the seeker after timber. ”

“ Then various interior waters lead to Greenville Channel and Chatham Sound. High mountains are everywhere, and deep, narrow fiords run far up into the land, the journey displaying so much magnificent scenery that the mind soon becomes satiated with the excessive supply of unadulterated grandeur. In this region is the Nasse River, where in the spring the Indians catch the Oulichan or "candle-fish," which gives them light, this fish being so full of oil that when dry and provided with a wick it burns like a candle. ”

“ The natives say there is a deeper channel to be found by keeping close in to the northern shore, but it has not yet been completely surveyed. A fresh breeze was blowing, which curled the waves and dashed them in breakers on the sandbank; so that our passage was made in a sea of foam. This obstruction renders the river comparatively useless, and is greatly to be regretted, as immediately the bar is passed the water deepens to four and five fathoms; occasionally we found no bottom with a ten-fathom line. ”

“ The river San Tadeo, although of small size, being navigable only for eleven miles, is the largest of any of the rivers of the coast to the south of the Archipelago of Chiloe, and therefore merits a particular description. At seven miles from the mouth it is fed by two streams or torrents, the currents of which are so strong that a fast-pulling boat can hardly make way against it. One of these streams takes its rise in a mountainous range over which it is probable the communicating road passes; and the other is the drain of an extensive glacier or plain of ice of fifteen miles in extent. ”