Stanislaus River

“ Stasch ordered the riflemen to gather the negroes together, and he addressed a few words to them. He explained that it was impossible to return to the river, for they knew full well that they were five days’ or five nights’ journey from it. But, on the other hand, no one could tell whether they might not find water in the opposite direction. In their immediate neighborhood a spring, a tiny stream, or a pool might be found; for although no trees could be seen, it often happens that on open plains where seeds are blown away by hurricanes there is water, though no trees. ”

“ These cataracts, where the stream crosses the equator and trends north-westwards, have been named the Stanley Falls, in honour of the daring explorer who dis- covered and successfully traversed them. Below the falls the river, flowing at an altitude of 1,400 feet above the sea, expands into a broad placid stream offering no further impediments to navigation till it approaches the Atlantic. In this section it is joined by several great affluents, such as, from the south the Lu-Bilash and Lu-Lami (Lo-Mami) , which rises near another Lo-Mami, flowing through the Sankuru to the Kassai ”

“ The plan of Martinez appears to have embraced two distinct objects, the first of which extended to the lakes of Tezcuco and San Cristoval, while the second was confined to the lake of Zumpango, the superfluous waters of which were to be carried into the valley of Tula, by a subterraneous canal, into which the river Guautitlan was likewise to be compelled to flow. ”

“ Then comes the upper series of Livingstone Falls, extending for eighty-five miles, from Manyanga to Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool. This practically brings the mighty flood through the mountainous region of 240 miles in width, and opens a navigable stretch of 1068 miles, extending from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls. From Stanley Falls to Nyangwe, in the fruitful country of the Manyuema, a nation in themselves, and notorious in Central Africa for their valor and cruelty in war, is a course of 385 miles, navigable for light craft. From Nyangwe to Lake Moero the river course is 440 miles. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Stultz Rock, on the opposite side of the stream, was a terror to raftsmen, their craft often being whirled to destruction at this treacherous location.
The Hawk's Bill boldly exposes itself to view, the point being known for many years as Signal Peak.
The Sugar Bowl, Inkstand, and Lone Rock stand amid the swirling waters of the stream, boldly battling with the forces of erosion. They are hard cores which have been left as the river cut its way to the present level. ”

“ The shores throughout this distance are generally flat and covered with boulders of limestone, compact felspar, granite, gneiss, and sienite, and there are many of these stones imbedded in a tenacious clay, which forms the beach. A ridge, having an even outline, and apparently of small elevation, commences behind Stony Point, in Slave Lake, some distance inland, and, running nearly parallel to the river, disappears about Fishing River, a stream which joins the Mackenzie, below the Second Little Lake. ”

“ The next afternoon, being tired of this sort of prison-life, and cramped for lack of exercise, I launched the canoe into the rough water, and crossing to Crow Island found a lee under its shores, which permitted me to ascend the river to the mouth of Atchison Creek, through which I passed, two miles, to the South Santee River.
All these rivers are bordered by rice plantations, many of them having been abandoned to the care of the freedmen. I saw no white men upon them. Buildings and dikes are falling into ruins, and the river freshets frequently inundate the land. ”

“ The soil and climate seem to be so favorable, that less labor is wanted than in most other countries. A great deal, if not most of the fertility in the valley must be ascribed to the ingenious system of irrigation, which they have introduced by a dam constructed in the river above Paso, and turning a considerable quantity of water into a canal. ”

“ The North and South Santee rivers empty into the Atlantic, but their entrances are so shallow that Georgetown Entrance is the inlet through which most of the produce of the country - pitch, tar, turpentine, rice, and lumber — finds exit to the sea. As I left the canal, which, with the creek, makes a complete thoroughfare for lighters and small coasters from one Santee River to the other, a renewal of the tempest made me seek shelter in an old cabin in a negro settlement, each house of which was built upon piles driven into the marshes. ”

“ In the illustration on page 209 the constant barricades of tangled driftwood encountered everywhere on the up-stream ends and promontories of the many islands of these rivers are shown, although the quantity shown in the view falls greatly below the average, the heads of the islands being often piled up with stacks ten or twenty feet high, which are useful in one way, as forming a dam that serves during freshets and high water, to protect them more or less from the eroding power of the rapid river. ”

“ It is not very hard to keep a raft or any floating object in the center of the current of a stream, even if left alone at times, but the number of things which present themselves from time to time to drag it out of this channel seems marvelous.
Old watermen and rafting lumbermen know that while a river is rising it is hard to keep the channel, even the driftwood created by the rise clinging to the shores of the stream. ”

“ Very well, they should have it.
Though the dam was practically wrecked, the main canal was intact. Its intake was just above the dam, solidly built of masonry, with sluice gates to control the volume of water. Without the dam it carried a comparatively small stream. With the dam, and the consequent raising of the water level, it would roar full from wall to wall, a river in itself.
Just at its lower lip Farwell began to drive piles at an angle upstream. ”

“ After the cataracts are passed, Stanley Pool is reached, where are the towns of Leopoldville, Kinshassa and others, founded recently as trading or missionary stations. The vertical descent of the river from the broad, tranquil expanse of Stanley Pool to the level at Vivi, is about 1,000 feet, and from thence to the sea fully 250 feet more. Stanley Pool, or basin, is about 20 miles long and nearly 10 broad, and is filled with low wooded islands, natural homes for hippopotami, crocodiles, elephants, and all tropical animals. ”

“ Some few of the Indians judiciously vary the two methods to suit the circumstances. On long stretches of only moderately swift water the tired trackers would take turns in resting in the canoe, using a paddle to hold the bow out from the shore. The current of the Dayay is very swift, and two days' "tracking" is often required to traverse the navigable part of the stream. Every few hundred yards or so the river needs to be crossed, wherever the timber on the banks is dense, or where the circuitous river cuts deep into the high hillsides that form the boundaries of its narrow valley. ”

“ Because of this spreading habit of the stream, the few villages along the way are planted on the higher land at the base of the bluffs, or on an occasional sandy pocket-plateau 245 which the river, as in ages past it has worn its bed to lower levels, has left high and dry above present overflows. Some of these towns, in their fear of floods, are situated two or three miles back from the water highway; others, where the channel chances to closely hug a line of bluffs, are directly abutting the river, which is crossed at such points by either a ferry or a toll-bridge. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It presents a still current, with an edging of savannah, which, at no great distance above, is again expanded around the margin of another lake, called Tascodiac. [6] Hills of sand, covered with yellow pines, here present themselves, and the river exhibits for several miles above, either a sand bank, or a savannah border. Time is the only measure of distance, which we had the means of referring to. About eight o’clock, rapid water was encountered, and at this point, which may be fifteen miles above Cass Lake, the meadow lands cease. Boulders, of a primitive character, are found on the rapids. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The white runnels of foam which laced the contours of the piled boulders gave the barrier the appearance of being miraculously uplifted, as though one saw thin daylight through its interstices. Not till the village was in view did we see where the main river avoided the barrier. The course here was looped. Above the barrier the river turned from the right 288 bank, and heaped itself in a smooth steep glide through a narrow pass against the opposite shore, the roaring welter then running obliquely across the foot of the rocks to the front of San Antonio on the right bank again. ”

“ That Congress did not act arbitrarily in determining that 'for the purposes of navigation of said waters and the waters connected therewith,' the whole flow of the stream should be devoted exclusively to that end, is most evident when we consider the character of this stream and its relation to the whole problem of lake navigation. The river St. Marys is the only outlet for the waters of Lake Superior. The stretch of water called the falls and rapids of the river is about 3,000 feet long, and from bank to bank has a width of about 4,000 feet. ”

“ A level table-land extends to the fords of Green River, a clear and rapid stream, whose entire course has never yet been mapped by an intelligent explorer. Here the road becomes entangled again among mountains, and winds its way over steep ridges, across foaming torrents, and through cañons so narrow that only noonday sunshine penetrates their depths, until it emerges, through a rocky gate in the great barrier of the Wahsatch range, upon the bench above Salt Lake City, twelve hundred miles from Fort Leavenworth. The view at this point, from the mouth of Emigration Cañon, is enchanting. ”

“ Travellers have assured the author that the Alps in no respect except historical association, surpass, and some say, do not equal this crowning glory of our great North-west State. Amid the bewildering profusion of great cañons radiating from the lake, the two most accessible are those of the Stehekin River and Railroad Creek. The former enters the head of the lake, after a course of probably fifty miles from Skagit Pass. To ascend this cañon we must commit our lives and fortunes to cayuse ponies and a mountain trail, which, though good enough to the initiated, is a terror to the "tenderfoot." ”

“ Beyond the lake there must be a clean-cut over or through the mountains to the Pacific, and here six locks are reckoned sufficient. Cross-cuts from one bend in the river to another can be constructed at the rate of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or less, per mile. The canal must be sunk or raised at intervals; there will, therefore, at various points be the need of a wall of great strength and durability, from one hundred and thirty to three hundred feet in height or depth.
The annual rain-fall in the river region between Lake Nicaragua and the Caribbean Sea is twenty feet ”

“ In fact, in former times, and subsequent to the retreat of the great glaciers, a rocky barrier crossed the valley at this place, damming the river which came from the glaciers higher up. A lake was thus formed which poured its waters over the barrier. Two actions were here at work, both tending to obliterate the lake—the raising of its bed by the deposition of detritus, and the cutting of its dam by the river. In process of time the cut deepened into the Via Mala; the lake was drained, and the river now flows in a definite channel through the plain which its waters once totally covered. ”